Fatali
by Ryrahd
Summary: KaixRei. Kai thought he knew and was prepared for everything life had to offer, and he would willingly give it all up. Enter element: Rei, who might just have enough gall to change it all completely.
1. Dies e Vicis

**A/N:**_ It has been more than two years since I've last this story. Seeing as to how my abilities as a writer have improve and that this story is finally going to be finished, I feel that a good revamping is in order. _

**Warnings: **_This story will feature violence, mature language, sexuality, scenes of sexual nature and sappy feelings between two men. Reader discretion is advised. _

**Disclaimers:**_This is the only time I am saying this: I own neither the characters, nor anything that pertains to the show. As far sa I know, the story concept belongs to me. _

Fatalis-e relating to destiny or fate; fated, destined by fate; in a bad sense, deadly, fatal Adv. fataliter, according to fate.

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Fatali**

**Chapter I: Dies e Vicis (Day of Change)**

He was running.

Rei's breath felt very heavy in his lungs and his heart hammered painfully against his ribs. Feeling convulsions beginning to tug on his stomach muscles, he clenched his teeth and pressed his lips into a firm line. He had spent a lifetime on the streets, where constantly being on the run meant survival. Although had he anticipated the pain that long periods without food or water brought to be present, it was always a shock to feel it gnawing on his insides.

He flinched slightly when another throe lurched at his sore muscles but he ignored it stubbornly and sped up his pace. He wouldn't risk a glance behind him but he didn't doubt that his pursuers were just a few strides behind. Adrenalin gushed in his veins, throbbing almost irritably in his temples. Blood was rushing to his face, making him feel dizzy, sweat was coating the back of his neck and brow, blurring his vision significantly. He greedily swallowed a mouthful of air and ignored another tug in his chest.

The soles of Rei's feet hurt and there was a stinging ache in his lower back but it was such a rush! The neon lights and dark silhouettes of people flew by him like streaks of bright colours, indistinguishable from each other. The air hit his face almost painfully, his long rope of hair smacking the back of his legs and his fringe whipping about his numb cheeks. He felt like he was the wind, and if it wasn't for the urgency of the situation and his own desperate need to escape he would have spread his arms wide and thrown his head back to enjoy the speed.

A big yellow sign with red writing zipped by him. He smirked to himself, now he'd be able to make his getaway. Growing up in the streets did have its advantages, Rei decided. It might not have been the life of luxury and he'd leave it all at the next possible opportunity but the slums of Sector 5 did have many excellent places where one could remain undiscovered. Getting lost was high on his priority list at that precise moment. Ignoring his protesting limbs he sped up even further. The youth mentally counted off the shops. Suddenly, he pivoted on his heel and dashed off into a dark alleyway to his right, letting its darkness swallow him, all without losing his pace.

The path ahead of him was narrow and veered off into hundreds of smaller passageways. Agilely, Rei jumped over a couple of crates that were blocking his way then ducked beneath the low-suspended laundry. He turned one darkened corner, then another, bowed politely to a portly woman arranging her baggage outside a rabbit hole of a dwelling, who barely spared a glance at the swiftly passing boy and continued to dig in her grocery bags. He was in the residential quadrant now, his pursuers would not be able to get him here. Besides which, they wouldn't be able to identify him.

Rei slowed down to a jog, glad to give his aching muscles the reprieve. Small houses, barely passing for liveable, began to clot him on each side, the alley growing wider. Some people were ambling about, either returning from work or watching their kids before turning in for the night.

People had this amazing ability to adapt into virtually anything, Rei reflected. Take away all comforts of modern life and man will find a way to sidestep it all and still come out on top. Here, for example, on the lowest level of the earth, the living conditions were horrid. Filth was everywhere, on the walls and on the ground and in the air and pumping in the veins. There was sickness and disease and death on every corner; every newborn out of four was born with defects, others died from not having food in their stomachs for months at a time. The government did not bother concerning themselves with the slums; the true heart of the country was in the sky now. The higher one lived off ground, the more important they were as well, the more their lives were worth.

And still, people managed to live in these conditions, Rei mused. He glanced at a couple of children playing in the hollow between two high-rising buildings. He saw the smiles on their dirty faces and then noticed that they were tossing around a dead rat — rats in these parts came with five legs instead of four and amused the kids greatly. He knew from experience that a little farther ahead there lived another family, and though they could barely spare enough food for themselves they never turned down beggars. It was extraordinary, in his opinion, that these people were still capable of retaining love for each other, of living happily despite everything.

"Rei-niichan!"

He heard his name being called and automatically glanced behind him, pausing his pace. A little boy with hopelessly tangled hair and big brown eyes was waving at him from a circle of his friends.

"You'll come play with us, won't you?" Another dirty boy from the group called out to him.

Rei smiled to himself. He didn't know why, but the children adored him. One would think that he created a rather imposing figure for the little ones with his darker skin and golden eyes but it somehow worked the other way around. Kids literally threw themselves at him, always wanting to spend time with their "Rei-niichan". And he didn't mind, really, though he was nearly twenty-one and had far more important things to worry about.

He waved back to the group of children, smiling brightly at them. "Of course," he replied, "there's nothing in this world I would rather do. You'd have to wait until tomorrow, though, I need to get back to the gang and it's getting late."

The children lent in their consent, a few echoing disappointed sighs. One little girl leaned a bit to whisper non-too-secretively to her friend. "I'm going to marry him one day, you know?" Rei laughed at this, his voice joined by those of the children.

"You promise?" He called out to the girl, who flushed a dusty rose shade and hid her face from embarrassment. "Grow up a little and then we'll see, all right?" He watched the girl's face light up and smiled at that. Smile still on his face, he bid them farewell and picked up pace again.

Farther down the rows of makeshift houses and a couple of twists of the path later Rei discovered himself at the entrance of what he called "home". It wasn't much, couldn't even be considered a house, just a large box-like dwelling that kept the occasional cold away and had enough room without being cramped. There were no windows, as windows in this district meant inviting trouble into one's home, and heavy-pleated cloth substituted for a door. A pale glow escaped from beneath the makeshift door. Rei smiled at this and straightened out his clothes, smoothing his hair back, without much success.

"I'm home," he announced, poking his head inside and then hastily letting himself in. The interior did not differ much form the exterior. Four walls, equally scruffy, various bits of cloth thrown over the ground as makeshift cushions, a small basin in the corner and an artificial flame standing on a small pedestal in the middle of the room.

Four childish faces peered back at him, appearing almost shocked. A brightly haired girl was the first to make a move. Faster than he could perceive, she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and squeaking out an excited "oniichan!"

Rei laughed in response, surreptitiously trying to disentangle her stronghold on him. "I'm glad to see you, too, Mao," he began teasingly, "but I'm afraid I need my lungs to breathe. And you're squishing the food."

"Oh, sorry," she murmured and sat back on her haunches.

"Nice one, there, Mao," a small boy with outrageously green-coloured hair intoned.

"Oh be quiet, Kiki," huffed the little girl and stuck her tongue out. Then she remembered Rei and turned to face him again. "What did you bring us? Is it better than last time? I don't think I liked those... whatever those were."

Rei smiled imperceptibly at her eagerness and removed the bundle he'd been hiding underneath his tunic all this time. He hated to steal, really he did, but he also hated starving himself to death, though it wasn't himself he was worried about. These four children – Mao, Kiki, and the two other boys, Lai and Gao – were his family and for them he'd do anything. All of them were abandoned in one way or another, rejected and scorned and then thrown to live in these filthy conditions. Rei was the oldest of them, so naturally all responsibilities fell on him.

He laid out the contents of the bundle out, handing the few small square metallic containers to the kids and stashing a knife he managed to thieve into a secret compartment in his clothes. Taking another small metallic box for himself he scuttled into a corner. The others were already eating so he opened his container and frowned at the contents. There wasn't any more organic food in the city – or the world – and recyclable, artificially flavoured mush was the only alternative. Rei scrunched his face at the lumpy-looking grey something.

"Are you going to eat that?" One of the older boys, Gao, asked while pointing to the un-eaten container in Rei's hands.

The youth spared the muck another disdainful glance and handed it to the boy, despite his painfully protesting stomach. Looking at them, slurping unidentified substances hungrily, their greasy hair hanging into their eyes and dirty faces, he felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness tug at his heart. He was supposed to look out for them, protect them and this was all he was capable of? At night he often dreamt of seeing these same faces scrunched up with hatred, walking around like wraiths, their skin sagging over protruding bones. He saw their eyes in his dreams and the emptiness in them scared him, accused him. Rei often woke up with a silent scream on his lips, his body trembling. Sometimes he wished that he could die. He hated this, hated the filth and the fact that he couldn't do enough. But what else was there? The world was dying, and so were the people; there truly was no hope.

"You managed to get away?" A quiet voice broke through his reverie. He glanced up at Lai, the one who had spoken and forced on a haughty grin.

"Have you ever doubted me?"

"No, but I suppose everyone slips up once in a while, even you," replied the boy. He was the second oldest of the group and the future leader, should anything happen to Rei. Sometimes Rei was discomfited by how presumptuous the younger boy sounded but he surmised that came from living such a harsh life for such a long while. The care on the other boy's face didn't escape him either.

"Then I'll have to wait for the next time to slip up," Rei answered with a small shrug.

"How's the world up there?" Asked Lai seriously.

Rei shrugged again, meaning that nothing changed from the last time the boy asked. The bottom level, or the slums, was no place to find decent merchandise so Rei would occasionally made the trip to a higher level. Hover modules made that easy because all one had to do was step on the platform and let it take you to the desired location. It was getting back down that was difficult. The milts – law enforcement officers, was their official title – were a persistent lot and did not give up chase easily. Rei knew perfectly well that if he gave them the chance to catch him he'd most likely not see his family ever again. But despite the dangers, he couldn't help but feel addicted. He loved to feel the adrenalin pumping in his veins, loved how he could move so fast and just barely bypass the risks.

He knew he was being a bit selfish when he went out to steal again and then enjoyed the thrill of the chase. His family were probably gnawing themselves from inside out with worry. It was immature and irresponsible of him to leave them facing the consequences of his risk-taking.

"Any news about the front lines?" The younger boy asked.

Rei frowned slightly at that. "I've heard that the Europes are gaining on us, they've moved up nearly twenty kilometres. If this continues, the Saudi front will be in serious trouble. And there were more bombings as well; ten cities, nearly ten thousand times more casualties. "

"Damn," muttered Kiki under his breath. "We're losing."

"But there's nothing we can do, is there?" Asked Mao, answering her question at the same time.

"There's always the army," said Lai quietly. He was frowning deeply, the light from the small artificial flame casting shadows over his face. Rei felt his insides freeze up at the words.

"Absolutely not!" He nearly shouted, scaring the little girl beside him. There might not have been many choices left, but he'd be damned thrice and die just as many times before he let one of the kids join into the bloodshed. Warfare, though he knew very little of what it was like from the eyes of a soldier, wasn't a good enough reason to sacrifice oneself for.

"And why not?" Lai asked acidly. As he saw it, he had no other reason to live. He and his kind were the grime of Earth, they were destined to die anyway. Maybe if he could die a noble cause, his being alive would have been justified.

"Because I won't let you," Rei fired back. "I care about you guys and I don't want you to die in such a way. Believe me, out here is much better than out there. I swore to God that I'd keep you safe and that's what I will do."

"So you're just going to sit here and brood while your people are dying out there?" Lai accused, clenching his fists.

"If it means that I can protect you then, yes, I'd rather rot here," replied Rei, his golden eyes flashing a darker, warmer shade.

"...Um... guys...?"

Both males tuned to the owner of the small voice. Mao sat huddled against Gao's side, chewing on her lip nervously. Gao frowned at the two of them, the expression seeming even more menacing on his bulky visage.

"Can't you save the fighting for later?" He asked. "It's late and we're all tired."

Rei sighed quietly. Of course, how could he ever forget, Mao hated when her two elder brothers fought. He nodded his agreement and motioned for the little girl to crawl over to his side. She did so, wrapping her small arms around his mid-section and burying her elfin nose in his tunic. The youth smiled down at her and smoothed the bright pink hair from her forehead. He liked feeling her small body pressed into him, it didn't make him feel so cold or alone. Living the life he had, there wasn't much comfort around him, so he sought it here, in the only place that would grant it to him.

Somewhere deep down he knew that he was being ridiculously overprotective and maybe just a trifle selfish. He knew the truth behind Lai's words. This was a dying world, its people were dying and so was everything else. Or maybe they were all dead from the beginning but were somehow reliving this hell. Rei couldn't tell any more – he felt like he was stuck in a ceaseless tableau. He'd wake up in the mornings and see the same desolation, day after day, and he'd be struck with an urge to run and find something less hurtful to look at. And when he slept, it was always on the same cold, hard ground, with Mao's slightly shivering body pressed to his.

What scared him the most, however, was that inside he earned for something more. It was like an itch that he could not get to, just under his skin. He did not know what he longed for, just that it was slowly eating him up from the inside.

Did it ever stop, he wondered. Maybe he was just dreaming this up, then. But dreams eventually gave way to wakefulness, though his never stopped.

He felt Mao stir beside him and forced himself to quench away the unpleasant thoughts. He glanced around. The artificial flame was dimmed but he could see the other's smaller forms huddled in their respective cots. He turned back to gaze at the little girl. She stirred once more and tilted her head up to look back at him. In the darkness her eyes resembled empty, sightless hollows.

"Rei?" Mao asked quietly. Not waiting for his reply, she continued, "Is there really a god somewhere out there?"

The youth looked at her strangely. Her earnest eyes were wide and large on her cherubic face, so innocent and childish but the darkness still remained ghosting over her features. For a split second he wondered whether it was the same child that uttered those words. It pained him to think that someone as young as eight could think like that but the truth behind her words did not escape him either. Innocence in this world did not come around often and it certainly wasn't cheap.

"I don't know," he replied slowly, honestly not knowing the answer.

The little girl frowned, her brows knitting together. 'That isn't right,' she thought, 'Rei doesn't know the answer and he knows _everything_.' "You said earlier that you swore to God that you'd protect us, but," she began uncertainly, "if there is a god, then why doesn't he take away the suffering? Isn't he supposed to be very strong? What kind of a god is he, then, if he lets people feel pain?"

The young man gaped at her for a long while, then with a sad smile he ruffled her hair and hugged her to his body once again.

"That doesn't matter," he answered slowly, still smiling despondently. "I don't think we'll ever find out. Now sleep, you're very tired."

She murmured something into his shirt and snuggled a bit closer. Rei listened to her breathing patterns while she slowly fell asleep, running his hands though her hair all the while. Was there really a god, he wondered. He doubted it, and if there was, He had abandoned them a long time ago. Maybe He grew tired of herding a bunch of disobedient children, or perhaps He saw that mankind didn't have a favourable future and chose to take His chances elsewhere. All that remained of God was a novelty, the title and the idea that sounded to pleasant but rarely meant anything. Either way, this world was godless.

Rei was just beginning to get lost in the soft, rhythmic breathing of the small child beside him when sirens blared from over head. Immediately, the four other occupants in the room jolted awake. Growing up the way they did taught them that light sleep meant survival.

"What in Hell..." muttered Lai, rubbing his sleep-encrusted eyes.

"What's going on, 'niichan?" Mao asked from beside him.

Hurriedly, Rei poked his head outside the dwelling. The big telescreen two levels above them broadcasted a blurry picture of himself, indiscernible writing scrolling beside it.

"Fuck it," the youth hissed under his breath and ducked back inside. How they managed to get his picture he didn't know but it meant serious trouble. He might not have been able to read what the telescreen showed but he knew a criminal charge when he saw it, and there was one hovering just a few levels above him and it had his name on it.

Hurriedly, he scurried about the room, digging out various bundles from secret hiding spots. He had no time now. Rei might have been popular with the children but he had enough enemies in this sector of give him away without a second thought. Another thought struck him and he dared a quick glance at the worried children around him. There wasn't enough time to prepare everything so he just threw the bundles to the children.

Frowning deeply, Lai picked up one of the packages and inspected it. It was one of their emergency provisions. Startled, the younger boy looked up at Rei.

"Rei," he drawled in slowly, "what's going on?"

The youth didn't answer and continued moving quickly about the room. "Listen carefully," he began from where he was taking out his throwing knives and wrapping them in cloth, "I want you four to go out the back way and head to the northern quadrant. From there, you can contact a friend of mine, his name will be Dickinson, you hear? Tell him that I sent you and he'll know what to do after that. He'll take you to Sector 6 and from there I want you to find some place you can hide. Don't come out for at least a week, understand? Can you do that for me?"

Grimly, Lai nodded and pocketed the wrapped up knifes Rei threw his way. He didn't need to know the details to understand that his brother was in a fix. That was the price they paid. All of them knew the dangers, and all chose to ignore them. But it was still hard to deal with, to know that one day someone you cared about was going to just vanish and you'd never see them again.

Kiki piped up, worry seeping into his voice. "Wait a second, 'niichan, something's wrong isn't it?"

"Brother's in trouble, isn't he?" Gao asked quietly.

Rei didn't say anything, didn't even glance at them. His throat felt very tight and he didn't trust his voice any more. They needed to get away, the milts would be there soon. His well fare did not matter, as long as they survived.

"Oniichan?" Mao whimpered softly.

Rei glanced at Lai again and nodded slowly, motioning to the back wall, where the secret pathway was. Obediently, Lai put away the bundles into a strap-on bag, attaching it around his waist. He then took Mao's and Kiki's hands, steering them toward the passageway, which Rei had already opened. Just when the younger three disappeared into the dark pathway, Lai turned to look at his brother.

"They'll miss you, you know," he said quietly, ducking his head so Rei wouldn't see the misery he knew must have shown on his face.

"I know, I'll miss you, too," replied Rei softly. Firmly, he grasped Lai by the forearm; it was a gesture that until that moment meant good will between friends, now it was a farewell. "You'll protect them, won't you? Promise that you will."

Stiffly, the younger boy nodded. He had looked up to his big brother so much, letting go was hard. "Yes, I will. But you, you, don't let them beat you down, you hear?"

Rei smirked at that. "You don't really think they'll be able to do that, do you? And here I thought you had faith in me."

Lai grinned in response, though his facial muscles ached from the gesture. "I guess not." He clasped Rei's forearm for just a moment before letting go. Rigidly, he turned back to the secret passageway and ducked through it. He didn't look back and said nothing else. Goodbyes were too formal, he felt, too impersonal and crude. Goodbyes only expressed a parting between people, they did not, however, convey the feelings inside, so they were as good as useless. And so he stealthily followed the others down the dark pathway, knowing all too well that he'd probably never see his brother again.

Rei watched as his family moved farther and farther away from him, slowly disappearing into the filth. Clenching and unclenching his fists, he forced himself to swallow the lump in his throat. Then realizing just how little time he had, Rei attached the wall panel back into place and took out the knife he stowed away in his tunic earlier, hooking it under his belt. With a last glance about the small room, his home, he crawled out and then immediately tore down the alley.

He was running again, and he smirked at the irony. Before he was running home, now he was running away from it. The familiar aches were returning to his limbs, breathing became strenuous, his heart beat painfully in his side. But he continued running, down one path, and then another, past a row of small houses, around a stack of crates. He knew it didn't matter whether he ran or not, he'd be found anyway; it was difficult to disappear when you were wanted to be found. He could already hear their footsteps behind him.

When the residential district was a few quadrants away, Rei stopped. He guessed by the large metal crates that the small courtyard he was in used to be the storage zone; vaguely he remembered coming here to play with his friends. He smirked ruefully to himself again. There was just enough room for a little get-together.

He didn't have to wait long for the guests to arrive. His smirk widened when he heard the thumping of standard militia boots stop and then "There he is!" echo through the air. He surmised there were at least six of them, but without light he couldn't be sure. 'Interesting odds,' he thought to himself with another wry grin. The adrenaline was still coursing in his veins from the run, and it was further fuelled when one of the large men threw himself at Rei. Nimbly, the youth dodged to the side just in time and then swerved to the side when a punch was aimed at him. One of the milts tried to deliver a low kick but Rei sprang away and dealt a backhanded blow.

One came from behind him and Rei spared a moment to deliver a back kick then elbowed the thug in the gut. While his attention was diverted, a milt managed to deal a punch to the side of his face that sent his jaw muscles screaming. Thrusting his fist into the man's stomach, he was allowed enough time to move half a step behind and execute a roundhouse kick, sending the man sprawling to the ground. The youth delivered another punch to a milts that sprang at his side then bringing his leg out and under his opponent's feet.

Dimly, he was aware that someone was shouting for him to surrender. He ignored it and jumped out of the way of another kick. The milts were cornering him against the crates, given time, he wouldn't have enough room to dodge their hits. Gracefully he ducked to the side when a blow sailed for his head, he then used the momentum to propel on his heel and deal a high kick. His body still twisted from the action, he sprang on his other foot, jumping a few paces behind him and on one of the smaller crates. Not sparing a moment, he leapt up the remaining crates until he was towering six feet over the milts.

"What? Can't catch me now, can you?" Rei called out to them haughtily, stopping to look down on them. Then he felt something barely graze his right ear. He cussed under his breath, rubbing at his ear to check for bleeding. There were other cuts on his body, he knew; bruises and a couple of fractured ribs at least. Another shot ricocheted off the metal crate, just below his foot. He swore again and ran to the edge of the crate, jumping to the next.

"Persistent bastards, aren't you?" He hissed under his breath. Another shot sailed past him. He ducked again and moved lithely to the next crate. They wouldn't dare to kill him, would they? These days all able-bodied men were needed at the front lines, and he certainly fit the description. So what was the deal with the guns, then?

Rei realized too late that he got distracted by his thoughts and didn't move a second fast enough to avoid the next shot. A stinging ache spread through his calf. It was just a prickle at first but then it spread like a glacier wave through his leg and then up the rest of his body.

"Fuck! Stun guns? So that's their game."

Rei tried to duck again when he heard another shot being fired but his limbs were too heavy. His fingers were becoming numb and a shudder passed through him. He felt his chest constrict and then a last breath escaped his throat painfully before he fell.

He couldn't move or breathe but he could still see the faces of the milts hovering over him, and then somebody was reading his charge.

"Kon, Rei, number alpha two seven four dash one sixteen," the automaton voice stated, "you are convicted of multiple charges of theft, felony and in-accordance to comply with state law. You will be tried under jurisdiction nineteen twelve and then immediately sent to Sector 1 for military duty. You have the right to remain silent."

Needless to say, Rei didn't utter a word. His stared un-blinkingly overhead, to the black, black sky and towering buildings. But what else did he expect? The sun? Stars? Those were just a myth. There was no such thing as stars or sunlight, just the ash black sky.

* * *

Hiwatari Kai looked out into the brightly-lit courtyard of the Academy through the window of his grandfather's office. From his position, the people below were mere dots, moving like insects to and fro. He then glared at the dome-like ceiling. Since the sky became black nearly a millennia ago, on the day that Apocalypse descended on Earth, sun seized to exist. If it wasn't for structures like these that were designed to provide artificial light, the entire world would have been suspended in darkness. The only downfall was the intensity of this light and the heavy energy bill.

Hiwatari Voltaire came to stand beside his grandson and also looked out into the courtyard. He traced his gnarled hand over the glass, blocking the ant-like people from view, as if obliterating them from existence. Kai's grandfather helped to establish the Academy, a place intent to prepare the human body and mind for the battlefield, and because of that he held a very important role in the parliament. On top of that, he was the president of Biovolt, once of the largest militant organizations in the entire world, and one of the most prominent politicians in Asis.

"Wonderful, isn't it?" The old man breathed out, awed at his creation.

Kai sneered down at the minuscule people. "Quite."

"So many little lives, so precious, and all obediently working underneath my fingertips," said Hiwatari, an almost insane gleam coming to his eyes. "Can't you just feel power radiating through your veins? One day you'll have it all, you know?"

Kai glared outside once more and then moved deeper into the room. "I'm well aware of that, Grandfather."

Hiwatari narrowed his eyes at the back of Kai's head. His grandson's insolence was almost intolerable at times, if he wasn't the same way when he was growing up he'd think there was something seriously wrong with the boy.

Kai glanced about the scarcely furnished office, the bare metallic walls, the single desk with leather chair. He looked at a few scattered papers on the desk, scanning their contents with very little interest. Politics were not his forte, he though grimly.

"Is there anything else you need from me, Grandfather?" He asked, annoyed with the old fool's silence. There obviously was no love lost between the two relatives.

Voltaire crossed his arms behind his back, clenching his jaws tightly. "New recruits are being shipped in again," he stated, almost casually.

Kai put down the papers he had been perusing and glared at his grandfather. "And what do you expect me to do about it?"

"You're a Commander already, Kai, I expect you to act like one," Voltaire snapped. "You'll be give an squadron of twenty-five, just like everybody else, and I want you to train them. They will be your future team."

Kai felt his temper flare up at that. Voltaire seriously wasn't thinking about making him baby-sit some snot-nosed nothings, was he? Kai wasn't a people's person and the thought of having some twenty-five inexperienced weaklings and hero wannabes under his care made him sick. People just didn't have the same appreciation for war, as he had, so they chased after its ideal, thinking that they could become national legends.

"You can't be serious, Grandfather," Kai spat out.

Voltaire quirked an eyebrow at the youth. "Oh? Don't make assumptions, Kai, I'm very serious. I've already given Boris the instructions. You're to report to level three lobby at o' six hundred hours tomorrow for team assignments."

Kai balled his hands into fists, averting his eyes to the outside again. He hated being controlled like that, hated how he had to obey every command Voltaire threw at him like some trained pooch. But he supposed that came with the profession. Warfare, after all, was a game based on power play, the stronger and the weaker, as was life. The stronger were the powerful, the weaker were to be used by the powerful and more power was the goal of the game. And like in the game, he was just a pawn to be used. Kai hated that he could not even put up a fight.

"What about the western front lines? Am I... will my team be deployed there once training is over?" The topic had come up before but always Voltaire avoided answering or gave the wrong answer.

"They? Yes," began Voltaire. "You, on the other hand, will remain here for another team to be assigned to you. I don't want you out there."

Kai dug his fingers deeper into his palms. He always received the same reply. It was his duty to fight, he gave into it willingly when he volunteered to be a soldier. He swore to protect his country and its peoples with his blood, and he'd protect them with his life.

"Why not?" He asked acidly. "It's my duty, isn't it?"

Voltaire sighed quietly and rubbed at his temples. "Enough with these foolish romantic ideals, Kai. War is not about duty and honour, it is about death and bloodshed and who can survive the longest and kill the most before he, too, dies."

"Isn't that what soldiers are supposed to do? Die for their countrymen?"

Kai knew quite well that his grandfather was touchy with death, having dealt with it a million times in the past. And he also knew that he was purposely tugging at the old man's strings when he mentioned it in relation to war and himself. But in all honesty, he was not afraid to die; he was and had been prepared to die since a very young age. Like all things, he would die one day, it was inescapable and it was fate.

Voltaire turned back to the picturesque window, looking down at his ant colony again. "You can die later, Kai, but not any time close to now. I still need an heir from you. Give me an heir and you can die five times over if you so please. But none of your chivalrous crap for now."

Kai grit his teeth. Aa, money, so that's what was stuck up the old man's butt. Even in his old age he couldn't let go of his money. Kai headed for the door out, having just decided that he had enough of the conversation."Understood."

"And get rid of those ridiculous things on your face!" Hiwatari called after him.

Outside the office, Kai glared venomously at the guard and stalked off to the transporter pods. The things on his face that Voltaire was referring to were blue dual triangles painted on each cheek. He was perfectly aware that Voltaire hated them and that it created a menacing image of him to his peers. Rumours of his aloof nature spread over the Academy; no one dared to cross his path for fear of his wrath. And that was exactly how he preferred it. He did not appreciate people meddling with his business, he hated even more when people thought that they could get him to "melt" as if he was a glacier.

That was the image that he radiated. Cold and hard and unapproachable. He was so good at projecting this image that even he believed it on occasion.

Distantly he heard the little chime when the hover pod reached ground level. Keeping his head high and his glare murderous, he walked purposely down a hooded hallway, occasionally glancing at the courtyard to his side. He doubted there was a place on earth that resembled the Academy in grandeur. It was really a couple of buildings housed under an enormous dome. The buildings were mostly dormitories for the trainees as well as classrooms and practice halls. It was like a small city contained within a glass bubble. There were shopping and entertainment arcades, a park (dingy as it was without real trees). Bordered by the sea on one side and an ocean on the other, and it even had an artificial weathering system — ever since the world eclipsed in darkness seasons were pushed back, winter and summer and spring existed only in historical records; there was only eternal night and black rain now.

Kai would have smirked disdainfully at that but those sorts of gestures coming from him might send the next unlikely passer-by running for their lives. He found it morbidly amusing how the government was giving up so much resources and money for dead men. They were spoiled and fattened like pigs before being sent off to slaughter.

"Aa, so the Ice Prince decided to grace us poor, worthless humans with a smile? I'm impressed."

Kai was startled at the interruption to his thoughts but hid it behind another scathing glare. He didn't bother to glance at the speaker and continued to stride purposely. He could recognise that cocky voice anywhere. Tala, that pompous bastard.

Undeterred by the other's frosty demeanour, Tala hurried up to walk just slightly ahead of Kai, turning to face him while still keeping his pace.

"I thought you had abandoned all hope for pathetic little people, what gives? You're turning soft?" He asked, tilting his face in what was meant as an innocent gesture.

Kai grit his teeth and looked at a point just between the parting of Tala's bright crimson hair. The arrogant soldier was Boris' – the vice president of the company that established the Academy – favourite lap dog and was a major thorn in the side. Kai had no idea why Tala always bothered him. Maybe because he refused to be daunted by the other's taunts or perhaps because he was Voltaire's grandson and heir until further notice. It was no secret that Tala sought only to increase his personal wealth.

"You've been chatting with Voltaire again, I see," he continued, unfazed by Kai's lack of response. "Well, aren't you just a Granddaddy's little boy, been asking him for a promotion? Oo, I can just imagine you grovelling at his feet —" he raised his voice a notch to mimic a girlish whine "— 'oh, Grandfather won't you reconsider? I've been such a good little boy lately.'"

Kai bit back a snarl and thwarted down the urge to ram his fist into the irritatingly mocking face. Violence between cadets was against protocol and Academy policy, and though Kai cared little for rules and regulations, he also knew that both Voltaire and Tala would take that as an opportunity to bring him down.

"Shut. Up." He spat and shoved past Tala, pointedly ignoring how the redhead squawked indignantly behind him.

Kai then heard the other chuckle behind him, calling out with "Why so touchy, Ice Man? Got too close to the truth?" but he ignored that, too, and headed for the building that accommodated the training rooms.

In a small part of his head Kai realized that his coldness would one day be a fault, but then he also didn't know whether he wanted to change anything. War was not played by merely one person, he admitted, and his lack of camaraderie would be a lethal mistake on the battlefield. Kai supposed that his unwillingness to become a team player was mostly a defence mechanism. If he didn't have any one meddling with him, then there wouldn't be that risk of attachment and ultimately loss, or betrayal.

And also there were the emotional complications. Affection and care caused one's mind to become obscured, which could become a vital link between death and life when the moment came. The battlefield was even more hazardous; tensions and all sorts of jagged emotions coated the air, things were likely to happen, people could get hurt, or killed. Kai didn't want to get distracted by those emotions, didn't want to feel obliged to return them. Another reason why he protested against having his own team.

He'd heard stories from veterans before, when he was young, and they told him that you knew and loved the man fighting beside you more than you loved your mother; facing death together was like the vow of marriage, only deeper because you knew that this moment with this person was the last. That frightened Kai most of all, though he was doing a very good job of convincing himself otherwise. Love, lust, sex – whatever – had no room in war. And besides which, he reminded himself, there were strong rules about such interactions with another soldier. Such things did not exist any more – or weren't allowed to, anyway; homosexual activity was one of the most heinous crimes, punishable by death.

If anything, Kai's glare deepened, his lips stretching into a barely visible line. Such thoughts, of course, were ludicrous.

And in any case, he was already at the training centre and striding toward practice room twelve. It was a routine of his, followed meticulously. Every day he would come into the same room at the same time and combat synthetic enemies until he had to remind himself to stay conscious. It rarely held a challenge for him, knowing perfectly well that there was no chance of him getting seriously injured, but he enjoyed the thrill anyway. There was just something so instinctual and raw in the art of combat, one he'd thoroughly anticipated every time.

Stopping at his destination, Kai took out his identification tag and slid it through the thin slot, punching out a few keys on the wall panel. Programme Zeta Dranzer, level 3, the computer screen beside the automatic door informed him. He pressed a few more buttons and the doors slid open, revealing a green, sunny clearing. He knew it wasn't real, just a recreation of a scene from art works dating back to before the Apocalypse, but every time he saw it he felt his breath catch. Was this really how Earth used to be? This lush greenery, the sky a cloudless, spotless brilliant blue? Modern world paled in comparison and Kai couldn't help but long to really feel what Earth felt like back then, instead of a produced image. It wasn't the same, he thought.

Kai stepped into to room, the door closing and disappearing immediately after him. The program started running as soon as the doorway vanished and he knew, from experience, that artificial enemies would begin to gather around him in no time. Hastily he undone the first few buttons on this cadet uniform – a dark, navy almost, blue with maroon and golden edging – and unzipped it the rest of the way, discarding it to the ground at his feet. As always, there was a hidden compartment beside the door containing the necessary weapons for the program. He crouched down low, opening the camouflaged case and removing a replica of an ancient katana. He tested it's familiar weight in his grasp, drawing it in a few loose circles, marvelling at how gloriously the light gleamed off its polished blade.

Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he saw a flicker of movement in the cluster of tall trees some five metres of. A second before he realized it for it was, the crack of a twig being stepped on alerted him of another presence, behind him and much closer. Kai swore under his breath; his inspection of the sword had allowed them to come closer to him than he usually allowed. He drew the katana in front of him on a slightly horizontal angle; a defensive stance. Then something whizzed his left biceps, tearing the white material of his undershirt. Cursing once again, he skirted another shot, crouching then moving off behind a shield of a thick tree.

Out of the danger zone for the moment, Kai brought a hand to wipe at the blood beginning to seep from the small graze on his arm. His heartbeat picked up speed considerably, the pulsing reverberating through his veins. Another movement caught his attention and he remembered the other opponent. Now he had foes on both sides, a crucial mistake if it was a real-life situation. He smirked. The better. He loved challenges.

Another projectile, an short bow arrow, struck the tree just centimetres off his face. He moved to the other side of the tree, looking out to the unseen enemy, and then the crunching of leaves was dangerously close to him. He hid his smirk and ignored the sound. Another arrow struck the bark, just barely missing his hand. And then, in a motion too fluid to be human, he ducked just before a blade stuck his side of the tree and brought his sword in and upward arc, cleaving his opponents arm right off its shoulder. The enemy fell to the ground, writhing, but emitting no other sound than rustling of cloth. It's face was empty, a deformed doll's. It then disintegrated, vanishing before Kai. There was no blood, nothing. Somehow, Kai felt empty.

Another arrow sailing by his ear alerted him to the still unseen enemy. He dropped to his haunches, moving off to the trees opposite his opponent's. It was impossible to get all the way to the other side of the clearing where he could take care of the archer without getting himself shot. So he opted to divert the enemy's attention with subtly moving branches and then sprint around the clearing to end up behind it. Not a minute after he thought that, the air just above his head was split with a _swoosh_. He propped himself on one leg, bringing the other out and under his opponent's feet, making it stagger back. Using the small amount of time he was granted, the youth sprang to his feet, delivering two high kicks to his enemy before angling his katana up and behind his head and then bringing it quickly down again.

He watched his opponent writhe in pain, like the first one, though for some reason he did not feel any remorse. Should he? He just killed an image, a ghost of the past, something that wasn't alive and did not belong amongst the living. Should he feel sad for it?

The youth didn't dwell on it too much before moving off again; his enemy was still buckling in the last throes before death, making the bushes shake. Soundlessly, Kai ran through the trees, occasionally throwing a rock or twig behind him. Another opponent showed up on his right. Before it could even raise it's sword, Kai's katana had already sliced through its mid section. Ahead of him, he saw the hidden enemy, crouched low behind some shrubbery. It, too, was faceless. Stealthily, Kai moved closer to it, drawing his sword over his head once again. A twig crunched under his foot but before the enemy could whirl its startled, empty head at him, the youth's katana was buried deep in its back.

Kai exhaled sharply, wiping the sweat off his face and brushing dishevelled slate-coloured hair out of his eyes. And even before the motion was done, he gyrated around and brought his katana on another enemy. Another one showed up at his side before he could fully recover. He delivered a low kick, followed by high and then a deadly low cut from his sword. Not two minutes later, two more showed up, shadowing his movements from both sides. He took out the first with a sweeping upper cut, using the momentum to slice through the second.

Again and again the faceless enemies popped up at his side, and again and again he brought down his katana with a deadly swipe. Sweat drenched his shirt by now, the flimsy material clinging to his body. He ignored how his lungs throbbed form the exertion. Offhandedly he noted that bruises and small lacerations were beginning to form all over his body, he hadn't even noticed when he got those. And still the enemies kept on coming at him, brandishing swords and knives and guns, though nothing truly compared to the nothingness where their faces should have been. At the back of his mind, Kai wondered whether he was like that, too. Another empty, soulless thing that charged with barred weapon and thought of nothing but death.

Hours later, it seemed, the program stopped running, as the standard safety procedure went. It might have been impossible to be killed by one of the faceless enemies (safety, again) but it was not unheard of inexperienced cadets dying from blood wounds. Staggering slightly, he came back to where he dropped his uniform jacket and donned it on, not even bothering to care that his undershirt was stained with blood in several places. Clenching his teeth and running a hand through his hair, he pressed a few buttons on the wall consol, which blended perfectly with the surroundings and would have been undetectable if he didn't know how to look for it. The door opened with a light ding. Kai walked out and immediately the weight in his hand disappeared; he didn't even realize that he was still holding on to his katana. Looking at his hand, he wryly noted that blood was clotting shallow cuts, where he had dug his fingernails into the flesh.

With a light shrug, he walked out of the building, noting the silence. It was night outside, the lights on the support beams of the dome dimmed to create the illusion of darkness. Stars were spread overhead, though he knew perfectly well that that was an illusion as well. He stepped onto the tiled courtyard and his footsteps echoed throughout. It was eerie and held a sort of otherworldly loneliness, but then he  
never did admit that he was lonely and besides which, that's how he liked it.

* * *

When Rei came to, he had the sort of gnawing impression that something was very much wrong. On impulse, he bolted out of bed, murmuring something about Gao's breakfast (the boy loved his food, as much of it as he could get) and the game he promised the kids the evening before. He stopped when he realized that he couldn't move his hands. Looking down, feeling his stomach plummet while doing so, he noted the standard issue militia handcuffs. He cussed under his breath and tried to, somehow, undo them.

"There's no use, you know, those things are impossible to get rid of, unless you have the keyword."

A voice just off to the side informed him. Startled, he looked at the speaker, finding himself facing a boy slightly younger than himself with dark, blue-tinted hair and equally dark set of eyes. Instinctually, he brought his hands to his chest in the best defensive pose his restrictions allowed.

Guardedly, Rei studied the boy, running his eyes over the slightly frayed red jacket, automatically searching for a weapon. The youth's round, earnest face did not hold any animosity toward him, however. Slowly, Rei brought his hands back down, fisting them on his lap.

"Who are you?" He asked, slowly, expecting the other to pounce on him should he give any provocation. Living all his live in the slums taught him that everybody could be an enemy, from an old man with the begging cup to the little child with huge, innocent eyes. In any case, it would not hurt to be prudent.

The blue-haired boy seemed unfazed. "Me?" He asked, pointing to himself with his own cuffed hands. "I'm Kinomiya Takao, call me Takao." He expended his trapped hands to Rei. The other youth just looked at him with a raised eyebrow but shook the proffered appendages anyway. "Who're you?"

"Rei." He gave nothing else.

"All right then, Rei," said Takao cheerily — 'Is this guy for real,' wondered the older boy, 'or just insane?' "I'm from Sector 6, where you're from?"

"Sector 5," answered Rei cautiously.

"Oh! How awesome!" Exclaimed the boy, startling Rei. "Sector 5? For real? Isn't that where Shanghai used to be, before the wars back in twenty-three-forties? My grandpa told me all about it, he used to be one of those study people that read lots of old books and look up ancient history. He said we lived where Tianjin used to be. Isn't that just so cool? Can't you just imagine walking on the same streets as the old peoples used to walk? What if you walk on their graves, wouldn't that be just freaky?"

The boy continued talking, unmindful that his companion was not sharing into his enthusiasm. Rei, on his side of the conversation, could just stare at the blue-haired boy in a sort of open-mouthed wonder. 'Definitely insane,' he confirmed to himself.

While the other chatted about some nonsense, Rei asserted the damage done to him. Based on his quick scan on the room, he guessed they were on the milts' transport pod, heading for Sector 1, he recalled the automatic voice telling him before his consciousness gave way. That's when he remembered about the stinging ache in his calf and then the numbing sensation. It was gone now, the only side effect being the irritating itching where the bullet hit and a sort of misplaced coolness in the marrow of his bones. He could feel the side of his face throb and even before he felt for it, he knew that a nasty bruise was forming there. His side hurt as well, though not as strongly, which meant that they must have done something to his fractured ribs. Rei was sore all over, mostly from sleeping on cold, metallic floor, he guessed, but otherwise he was just dandy.

So it must have been at least five hours since then, he decided and sighed quietly; that's how long it took for the stun effects to wear off. He hoped the others were all right, that they wouldn't be stupid enough to risk going back to the hideout to look for him. But then, Lai was with them, he'd make sure nothing happened at least; he promised, after all. Then the reality sunk in. He'd probably never see them again. The war on the border was getting serious and even after nearly five years it still hadn't show signs of ending. The government was getting edgy, cutting down on money for the poor quadrants, using every opportunity to enlist more soldiers. Every criminal these days was sent to the army; there simply wasn't enough resources to keep running prisons and they'd die there rotting anyway, why not put them to good use?

Rei scowled bitterly. Out of the torture house and into the slaughtering pit.

Silence met his ears and he looked up to regard his strange companion curiously. "Why did you get caught?" He asked before he could help it and instantly he felt ashamed. It wasn't his business and it wasn't exactly the most pleasant thing to talk about.

Takao blinked at him a couple of times and then shrugged. "My grandpa needed some medicine. He's been very sick lately, can't even get out of bed, and when I went to the store on level three I couldn't cough out enough money. I didn't think the shop owner would mind so much, after all, wouldn't everyone be glad that because of them a life was saved? Heh. I guess he didn't think so. The milts caught me while I was walking back home." He then regarded Rei quietly, warily almost. "Why are you here?"

Rei shrugged. "Same boat as you, you could say. I needed some food for my family and was a little short on money chips."

The two grew silent after that. Rei was thinking back to the children, wondering if they had enough food and whether Mao was crying (which she probably was). He felt guilty for not saying anything in the ways of goodbye to them, but he couldn't, really, not when looking at their small faces made his stomach churn painfully. Takao, based on the grim look on his face, was thinking of this grandfather, probably wondering how he was faring without that medicine; he never did get back home with it.

The blue-haired boy shifted slightly, then looked up at Rei with a grin. "But man! That was some entrance! What happened to you? When they dragged you in I thought you were halfway to the land of the dead! There was blood on your face and clothes! And the milts! They looked like they wanted to eat you alive! What did you do to them? Kicked the shit out of them, I hope."

Rei laughed then, a bit gutturally, but that was mostly because his lungs ached after as much exertion as he had had. "You could say that," he admitted to Takao, remembering pummelling one giant milt after another. The other boy laughed with him then, too, and suddenly Rei felt the tension that he had not detected in the air before begin to drop. Maybe it was the beginnings of a friendship? It would be nice, he thought, where he was going to not be alone at least.

The two of them sat there, in the small cramped transporter, listening to the soft hum of the engines, occasionally exchanging a few sentences. Rei told Takao about the kids, of how he was the only thing he had, and in exchange Takao told him of his grandfather, who, too, was the only thing he had.

It may have been hours later that they felt a little tremor pass through the transporter. They both looked up startled, muscles tense, scuttling away from the portal that was slowly crawling open. Then white light hit them, blinding them. Rei tried to shield his eyes with his hands but found them grasped firmly, pulling him up.

"Hurry up, you filthy rats!" A voice barked at them, yanking harder on Rei's arms. Still blinded, he spat at where he assumed the milt was standing. His face snapped to the side with a painful-sounding _slap_. He winced, bit his lip, hard, but refused to make a sound.

Succumbing to his captors, Rei allowed them to drag him out of the transporter, though he tired his darnedest to make the job harder for them. On solid ground, the brightness began to fade. He looked around himself in wonder. Everything was incredibly clear. Eternal night obscured nearly everything with darkness, but this place was so bright, as if the once banished sun returned again.

"Move!" He was shoved from behind. The youth winced again as some of the wounds reopened.

"Damn bastards," he muttered under his breath and was pushed once again.

He, along with other prisoners, he noticed, were herded into the centre of the brightly-lit courtyard. Rei tried to seek out Takao, who was ushered out before him, but there were too many dark heads bobbing in the cluster of equally confused men. He guessed that every one of them were criminals, like himself, and were delivered to their designated punishment. He smirked wryly to himself. 'What about a trial?' he thought with another smirk.

"Attention scumbags and flea-bitten rats!" A booming voice resounded through the courtyard, instantly silencing the confused murmurs from the convicts. "You are at the Academy of Warcraft Arts in Sector 1 of Asis. By coming here you have automatically taken a vow to serve your country until your very last mangled, putrid breath, and that will be how most, if not all, of you will end your stay here."

Over the many heads, Rei could just see a tall, broad-shouldered man walk back and forth in front of the group, his chin held rigidly high, eyes filled with disgust. "This will be your new home —" he spread his arms to indicate the courtyard and the buildings surrounding it "— and here is where you will spend the rest of your days. Each of you will be sorted out into groups and a Commander will be placed in charge of you. You will obey his every command, even if he tells you to cut off your balls and eat them raw. If he tells you to wipe his piss of with your tongues, you will do it. If he tells you to betray your best friend and kill him with your bare hands, you will do it. He will become your god and your religion." A startled, wave-like murmur passed through the cluster, eyes darting to each other for confirmation.

Rei felt a cold shiver pass through him. Was this how the military was run? With fear and humiliation? Rei would rather thrust a knife through his heart than face the type of Commander that was described.

The youth watched the man walk off and then another, lankier but no less menacing-looking man take his post. He held out a digitalized list before him and began to read in an irritatingly scratchy voice.

"Batmanov, Sergei, double alpha eight four dash twenty-three." 1

A tall boy with dark blond hair walked shakily from amongst the cluster. Even from his position, Rei could clearly see that he was shaking badly, his eyes darting around frantically. An officer led him off to somewhere.

Another name was called, and then another. One by one, men – and even a few boys – were separated from the group and lead to another area, looking for all they were worth like they wanted to crap their pants.

"Kinomiya, Takao, negative beta six two dash fifteen. "

Rei held his breath, watching from a decidedly decreased group as Takao walked out. He saw the blue-haired boy grin easily at the officer that came for him but it seemed just a little fake to him, like it was plastic or was stitched to his face. Rei's sharp eyes did not miss the slight shaking in the other's knees.

"Kon, Rei, alpha two seven four dash one sixteen."

Still concentrating on Takao's retreating form, Rei almost missed his name being called. A silence fell among the remaining men, then, like all the previous times. They looked at each other, warily, the same question lingering on all their minds. Is it you? Rei frowned at how frightened they all were acting and pulled a smirk on his face. Cocking his head to the side, he pushed through the throng, murmuring a few "pardon me"s and walking out almost saucily to face the waiting milt. He smirked even wider, seeing how strangely the officer regarded him.

"Shall we?" He offered his hand to the confused cadet, grinning at him cheekily, narrowing his eyes mysteriously.

Without a word (the officer didn't take his extended hand), he was lead to a smaller cluster of men. He immediately identified one of them being Takao. With a small grin he ambled over to him.

"Hey, stranger, never expected to see you in these parts," Rei said teasingly. He didn't know why he was acting this way but he suspected it was to keep himself from trembling in terror. Takao grinned at him, feeling some of his nervousness subdue.

"Is this all?" Rei heard the quietly spoken phrase and turned to look to the shadow of a building. A man dislodged himself from a pillar, as if he had melted into the stone.

"Yes, sir," the officer that brought them there replied curtly. He then turned to the group of twenty-something men, addressing them in a cold voice. "All of you, assemble yourself into a row, toes along this line." He pointed to where tiles of the floor connected. "Keep your eyes trained in front of you."

They sluggishly moved into position, probably still terrified by it all. The man who seemed to blend into shadows so well stepped in front of them, running his gaze along the their petrified faces. Rei managed a quick peek before turning his attention back to the front, as instructed. He was startled, to say the least, but kept his face neutral. The officer before them was just a boy! His age at most. From what that man had said he expected his Commander to be a giant that crushed human bones using just his sheer will, not one that had barely grown up!

Rei frowned, inspecting the man from beneath hooded lashes. He was tall and seemed almost lanky in the dark blue uniform. He had a pale complexion, a set of odd umber-coloured eyes and hair that was a ridiculous mixture of blue and slate and looked as if it hadn't seen a comb since the Austraria boundary conflict ten years ago. Rei noticed strange markings on the boy's cheeks and got the distinct impression that he was a runaway barbarian from the far reaches of Siberia. He narrowed his eyes and resisted the urge to sneer. What was so special about this boy?

"Listen up," the Commander (if he assumed correctly) began in a rich baritone. "From here on you filth can forget about ever seeing home or the rest of your filthy family ever again. This is your home now. I'm in charge of you now and as such you will listen only to me, you will obey only me. Is that clear?" Numbly, they all nodded, Rei more forcefully than necessary. "Your lives and deaths are at my fingertips. If I choose to, I will use that privilege, no questions asked.

"I am Hiwatari Kai, the highest-ranking Commander in this institution. You will address me only as 'Sir', if you do not comply, you will be punished. If you disobey any of the rules I lay out, you will be punished. If you step beyond the boundary of your privileges, you will be punished. Punishment ranges from flagellation to death. Make no mistake, your lives are expendable and replacements can be found easily."

An almost imperceptible murmur of agreement passed through the line of assembled. Rei felt an unpleasant shiver pass through him at the tone in the Commander's voice. He had to bite back a vicious retort. This boy had barely learned how to pee without help and he was calling them filth, addressing them like _they_ were the ones who needed to be educated?

"I will call out your names and you will step forward." The other officer handed him the tablet with the list. "McGregor, Johnny." A red-haired youth stepped forward. Another soon followed.

"Tate, Maximilian." The Commander paused when a blond boy with a slight build bounced forward. "Tate?" Kai let the name roll off his tongue, glancing at the excitedly bounding youth. "Aren't you the heir of Tate Enterprises?"

"Sure am! You can call me Max, though, if you like," the blonde answered cheerfully. Kai had to blink away his confusion. In a place like this? Didn't the boy knew that he was trained to die? He had heard of the notorious heir of the said company, and seeing the boy in person confirmed some of his assumptions. This Max Tate was either ridiculously childish or a very good actor.

"What are you doing here, this isn't a place for spoiled rich boys?" He asked.

"Well," the blonde began thoughtfully, "this country had given me so much, and knowing that my own people are sacrificing themselves for it made me want to do something as well."

"A battlefield has no room for chivalry," Kai stated and immediately winced, remembering Voltaire's words. "And I'm sure you are needed to take care of the future of your father's company."

Max titled his face and looked at Kai scrutinisingly. "But aren't you Voltaire Hiwatari's heir? The grandson of the president of Biovolt?"

Kai ignored the question and read the next name. Things always came back to Voltaire, no matter how hard he tried to believe otherwise, he would always be Voltaire's grandson. At the moment, it was a curse.

"Kon, Rei," he read off the last name on the list and watched as a youth about his age stepped forward.

Something about him caught Kai's attention. The young man had lightly bronzed skin, sun-kissed, if that was possible – which it was not because there was no sun – and inky black hair falling into his eyes. Amber-golden eyes that stared back at him venomously. His perpetual frown deepened; hadn't he instructed that they look only forward? Something thrown over the youth's shoulder drew his attention. Fists clenching at his side, he strode over.

Looking down his nose at the boy, Kai scrunched up his face and grabbed a hold of the dangling thing, realizing it to be hair. He grasped the rope in his hand, tugging harshly at it. The youth – Kon Rei – didn't flinch but Kai noticed the almost imperceptible narrowing of his eyes.

"If you want to stay alive as long as possible in my squad I suggest you cut this thing off," he said frostily, giving another pull at the hair.

"And if you don't want to be missing that hand of yours I suggest you remove it from my hair," Rei hissed back, his pupils shrinking into cat-like slits, if that was possible.

With a final tug, Kai drew his hand away, then, almost as an afterthought, wiped his hand on his pant leg. He heard Rei growl behind him but ignore it, for now.

Turning to them one last time, he barked out, "Your training begins tomorrow morning at this time, exactly. Tardiness will not be tolerated. You'll be shown to your dormitories later, now strip and head for the showers, I don't want to encounter that stench ever again!"

Kai gave a few instructions to the officer that until that moment remained motionless and then set off for the training rooms, again. Behind him, the line of future cadets – his team – scattered around, listening to the instructions given them. He let a sigh escape and then quenched it back suddenly. No more than twenty minutes had passed since the arrival of his new team and he already had the urge to kill every single, snivelling one of them. He needed to train some more, he decided, wanting to feel the heaviness of a katana in his hand again.

* * *

From many stories overhead, Voltaire and Boris watched as several such assemblies dispatched and the little dot-like people began moving around the courtyard. 

"Are you sure it is wise to let criminals and convicts fight alongside the Academy's best?" The vice president asked, moving to stand behind the desk. "Some of them are murderers, cold-blooded killers."

Voltaire smiled at something hideously funny. "And that would be different from the typical soldier how?"

Boris didn't answer for some time, letting the thick silence sink in. Finally, he said, "What if they can't be trusted? It's not unheard of dogs turning against their masters."

Voltaire grinned down at his little toy army. "Humans have this tendency of always abusing whatever they were granted," he began. "Give man freedom and he used it to commit crime, give man choice and he takes the wrong one, give man power and he'd eventually destroy himself with it. But teach a man how to obey, how to forget everything else but this – bloodshed and destruction – and they will grow accustomed to it, they'll come to appreciate it and love it. He'll learn that obedience means strength and that survival lays in strength and he'll willingly become obedient so all that strength could be harnessed from him, for him."

Boris looked Voltaire's reflection in the glass and it struck him, maybe for the first time in nearly two decades, that his superior was truly a frightening man.

(Continua...)

* * *

_1 I didn't know Spencer's Russian (or English) last name, so made one up In the code for the people, the 'alphas' and 'betas' are blood types. Like 'double alpha' is A+ and so on so forth, of course I made up the blood types._


	2. Versatilis Veritas

**Chapter II: Versatilis Veritas (Revolving Truth)**

In the year 1999 and seven months

The Great King of Terror will come from the sky,

He will bring back to life the great king of the Mongols.

Before and after Mars reigns happily.

Nostradamus, century X, quatrain LXXII

In the middle of the sixteenth century, a French scholar and seer predicted that at the dawn of the new millennium a great evil will descend upon the Earth and war will reign supreme. And this war, both of the mind and sinew, would bring an end to a desecrated epoch, only to begin anew, as the cycle is continuous.

After a great misery for mankind an even greater approaches.

The great cycle of the centuries is renewed:

It will rain blood, milk, famine, war and disease.

In the sky will be seen a fire, dragging a tail of sparks.

Nostradamus, century II, quatrain XLVI

The last decade before the descend of the Apocalypse, human kind was at its worst. A sort of ostentatious luxury spread throughout the land, fake and impervious to disillusionment. Bloated with modern comforts, the people grew cocky. All leaders of the Earth were living in a dream of tranquillity. But they were restless, their anger suppressed, as were the peoples'. Pleasure was taken from lies and dishonesty; death was inflicted on women, children and defenceless animals. Man was prone to theft and keeping possessions of others with a character that was mostly vulgar and greed-filled. And this greed dominated all men.

Will was short-lived; ambitious of little virtue, man sought to dominate the world and each other. People followed customs of others and were adulterated with them; peculiar, undisciplined barbarians were vigorously supported by the governments. Earth was valued by her mineral treasures. Money alone conferred nobility. Power was the sole definition of virtue. Pleasure was the only reason for marriage. Falsehood won out in disputes. Being dry of water meant definition of land. Praise of worthiness was measured by accumulation of wealth. Impropriety was considered good conduct, and only feebleness was the reason for unemployment. Boldness and arrogance was equivalent to scholarship. And because he was living with perversion and crimes against the natural world, man was destined to be ruined, consumed by his own immorality.

Before the end of the twentieth century, the world saw the first and final signs of the destruction of the Earth. The amount of natural disasters tripled in the last decade. In Turkey and in Greece earthquakes of enormous capacity wrought havoc, destroying tens of millions of lives. Hurricanes in India and the Caribbean were the worst seen in nearly two hundred years. Major floods in India, Nepal and Eastern Asia were catastrophic; the Great Yangtze River flood in China ruined millions of lives and cost billions more in damage. Fires ravaged Brazil, Indonesia and Siberia.

And further still, disasters caused by human hands grew more and more severe. Forests vanished faster than new ones could grow, the land needed to house the ever-increasing population. The seas stank with human waste, water was filth liquefied. Great hordes of fish were caught at ones, so much that many became instinct and laws had to be placed to prevent further damage. Wild animals were caught by poachers and placed in cages and under leashes so they could serve as entertainment for bored human minds. The air was slowly being poisoned by exhaustive gases, heating up the atmosphere, speeding up the seasons, and because of this, glaciers to the north and south were melting, disrupting the natural cycle of life there.

Famine and disease not unlike the Bubonic plague spread throughout the world. In Africa, millions – if not billions – died of malnutrition and AIDs, which spread out so rapidly it threatened to consume the entire continent. The governments fought to maintain an illusion of peace while at the same time its walls crumbled. Petty wars, unknown to the rest of the world were waged in Africa, with devastating results. Other, larger and much more significant wars were fought for no other reason than expansion of land. The Four Horsemen: Conquest, Slaughter, Famine and Death reigned supreme.

People grew restless, sought to make their lives better by substituting the natural with modern advancements. Lassitude and indifference made the brain rot, Internet coagulated the corruption of the human mind by allowing access to a whole new variety of filth, available at the touch of fingertips. And with vaster knowledge also grew variety. New forms of entertainment were established, some of them bordering to the extent of obscene and blasphemous. Religion became a choice, fornication was a given, justice became muddied with righteousness, murder was not a heinous crime but a day-to-day occurrence, the lines between taboo and immorality blurred. Art lost preciousness, love lost meaning.

And at the peak of all this, stood hate, blind and pure, unchangeable, hate.

Then, on the seventh month, in the one thousandth and nine hundred ninety-ninth year, the unthinkable happened: the world died. Dark, ash-coloured, ominous clouds gathered overhead to cover the entire world. It rained at intervals for seven days, the sullen gloom never fading. During this time, floods and earthquakes rampaged throughout many countries of the world. Volcanoes that had been dormant for hundreds of years, like Vesuvius in Pompeii, erupted so when it rained it looked like the water came down in sheets of both fire and stone. Typhoons raged in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, submerging many islands underneath galleons of salt water.

The farming stock that grazed during this time became poisoned and died within hours, the milk of those that survived had been contaminated and had to be disposed off in the overflowing rivers. The fish died also and when great floods destroyed the cities in Russia and Canada on the fourth day, the water that coursed through the streets was white and filled with carcases of fish and animals that had not managed to escape. Disease spread through Europe, originating from the pests and carried through the water. This malady was far worse than any seen before that time, it caused the skin to swell up, and shortly to accumulate puss and blood and then erupt; billions died in a matter of days. The Dead and Mediterranean Seas washed ashore human corpses, both new and from the graves that rain water had destroyed.

On the fifth day, there was a massive system crash. Everything from mundane technology to highly advanced apparatuses ceased to function. Computers, so new to the world then, died, and with them everything else stopped to function as well. Terrified, the people were overcome with mass hysteria. Some built shelters in their basements or sheds; others killed to gain a shelter. Laws, both human and state, were disregarded. Wars were waged against virtues and the will to live.

On the sixth day, the world was still. Those people that had survived the plagues and the natural disasters died in massacres and those that lived even still, hid, like rats, in wholes and stayed there without a sound.

On the seventh night, before day had fallen, the sky had finally cleared. Those humans that lived and saw that night say that the moon was blood red and when it began to rain a new, the rain was also bloodied. The gods were crying for Death. When the sun rose, the sky was streaked with crimson and where it touched the world's oceans, it seemed as if both were on fire. And then the clouds drew in again, black and filthy.

In that moment, for precious moments of time, the survivors, few as there were, rose from their hiding holes and saw their world in ruins. Cities that had once been great lay dilapidated at their feet, great monuments of art were destroyed and millennia of accumulated knowledge had vanished with those ruins. Before the sky became eternally black, the people realized their vanity, the frugality of what they sought to conquer and swore upon the red of their blood, as sure as the red in the sky and in the water, that they would never fall to that fate again.

1

It had been prophesied that with this great calamity, all humanity on Earth would cease, as the animal world had committed no crime. But even Fate did not account for human persistence and sheer idiotic will. Humans are much like pests, managing to survive the worst and then come out barely scathed. Like rats, humans survived the Biblical Flood, and then savage wars of the Ancient World, in Babylon and then Mongolia. And like so, humans persevered.

After the fall of the Eternal Dark, those people that remained rose up and began to rebuild their world. Their passion was unquestionable, as was their willingness to atone. The dead were fished out of the seas and rivers, re-buried or given new burials. In time, the waters were cleansed of blood. The ruins of the cities were scoured, and among the wreckage pieces of art and literature were found. Fearful of another Armageddon, people abandoned the thought of using advanced technology, but the constant darkness forced them to rebuild electricity poles so that they may have light again. Slowly but steadily the population of the world, meagre at the time, increased and cities rebuilt. For nearly a century, there was peace that no one dared to disrupt.

But change is not still, it is restless and chaotic and always propelling forward. One decade became two and then three and then nearly a hundred years had passed since the Great Destruction. And with time, memories began to fade, as they always do. The original survivors had long since passed away, the only recollection of those seven torturous days were found in records designed to keep the memory alive. To the descendants of the survivors, however, that memory was inconstant, easily alterable and doubtful because they had not experienced it firsthand. They, too, grew restless. They had grown up with stories of great technological advancement, of machines that could sail the sky and boxes that showed the world at the touch of a fingertip. And they, like their predecessors, wanted to have those abilities, to make their lives easier.

Seeking knowledge and the splendours of the past years, they went back to those ruins, the greatest of which were in Northern Europe, North America and Eastern Asia and had never been cleared up to remind of the past, and dug out these machines. It took time, but this new wave of people had found out the secrets to their ancestors, rebuilt these machines, made them better and then created new ones according to previous designs. The world was alight again.

Because of the many disasters that raged during the Great Destruction, the Earth has been remoulded, the old continents worn out and changed, though remaining mostly the same in character. The rivers and lakes expanded, many oceanic islands were forever lost while at the same time whole landmasses rose to surface. At this time, the world was one giant nation, ruled by the people, as in ancient Rome.

As time wore on and the population grew, more and more land was needed for living space. The forests that had re-grown were once again cut down, cities sprawling in their place. The need for constant energy, to keep the light alive, forced the people to leach off the earth and soon, their energy basket was depleted. Man had to look elsewhere to support himself, so he took to the sky. Towering buildings were set up, sometimes reaching as far as the ash-coloured clouds. At first these structures were merely for manufacturing purposes but then the Earth, having contained enough poisons from its energy giving days to kill any great amount of people, was unbearable to live in and so people began to live in these great edifices of the sky.

Soon, territorial disputes began. What once was Europe claimed supremacy over all else, having been one of the founding and originating nations of the ancient world. North America wanted dominion because it had been the most powerful before Apocalypse. Asia said it was the largest, so it should rule. That was the start of the Conquest Wars, which lasted for nearly thirty years and began the bloody cycle that Nostradamus predicted once again.

In the result, there came out seven great powers, or nations: Europa, which extended throughout the entire European continent (Slavic countries included) to all of Africa and Turkey; Liberia, the land of freedom, which was the entire North American continent; Leae, which was the South American continent; Russi, the land of the pacifists and refugees from the Conquest Wars that was most of Russia; Austraria; Arcae, the cold, once barren Antarctica; and Asis, which spread through to Japan, China, Indonesia, India, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia.

In Asis, there was built a city of gigantic proportions: New Asia. What was once Japan became Sector 1, North and South Koreas became Sectors 2 and 3, the remaining three sectors were set up in costal China, spreading as far north and south as Harbin and Hong Kong. Bridges, the likes of which encompass human ingenuity, were built to connect the cities, making it look like a spider web from above. And upon these bridges living districts were set up, so little space there being in the world.

The people had long forgotten what caused the descend of the Apocalypse, though the knowledge of that time still remains in records. Man has grown ignorant again. Famine slowly unfolds throughout the world, since there is no more organic food. Disease slowly eats at the people; the lower levels of the cities crawl with parasites and deformations, women and children die at birth. Currently, Europa and Asis are at war, both hungry for more land. As in the old days, the Four Horsemen ride again.

* * *

Kai woke up with a start. It was not the sort of awakening where one wakes up with a scream on the lips, it was the sort where one moment you are lost in the realm of sleep and then suddenly wakefulness assaults, chocking. For a whole minute Kai lay like that, struggling to remember how to breathe, staring unblinkingly at the ceiling and trying to get the shock out of his system. The listless ceiling offered no answer. It took him a while to organize his thoughts back into a semblance of order, and even then he still felt like he was out of place.

When Kai shifted to remove the comforters, a dull ache swelled up just between his shoulder blades, spreading over his back muscles with agonizing slowness. He then remembered the previous day and struggled to control a groan from escaping. He was feeling beyond murderous when he stalked away from his new team, heading straight to the training centre and booting another round of Dranzer Theta, one of the more difficult programs the system had to offer. The enemies were much more difficult to defeat, with deadlier arsenal and as persistent as common fleas. He must have been there for hours and when he stumbled out, Kai was barely conscious, passing out the second he made it out of his clothes and into his bed.

Hissing under his breath, he sat up, massaging throbbing muscles while doing so. The glass of the one window in the room was tinted black, preventing any light from the outside to leak in but even without the artificial glow he still knew it was time to get started with the day. Shuffling to the bathroom, he thanked, for the first time in his life, the fact that he was Voltaire's grandson. The Academy, though relatively huge, did not have enough space to provide every cadet and officer with a separate room. Being related to one of the founding members of the institution gave him some advantages, like his own apartment (as small as it was) and a mean reputation among other officers.

He reached for a tube of toothpaste when a purplish-yellow bruise on his forearm caught his attention. Under closer inspection, he noted that similar bruises and cuts were peppering his entire upper body. The darkly tinted flesh stood out eerily against his naturally pale skin, like stigmas marking him as a fighter, a warrior. Tentatively he fingered one of the contuses, biting back a hiss at the sting.

Wearily, Kai opened the small cabinet underneath the sink, taking out a small vial with yellowish fluid and an injector. He hated taking drugs, but he also hated appearing undignified before somebody who was weaker than he was. NaeLanio was a new narcotic going around; it was odourless, tasteless, easily injectable and addition-free. It worked like a painkiller but without the highly toxic side effects. Kai didn't use it often because, if he was truthful with himself, he needed to feel the pain, just to know that he really could feel.

He took the little capsule, clicking it into place on the injector, and then removed his shirt, bloodied again. There were several ways to take the drugs but he preferred one that left as little visible marks as possible. He poised the device just above his navel, the small needlepoint barely touching his skin. Sucking in his breath, he pressed the small button on the side of the injector. The needle dug into his skin, hard, the narcotic seeped into his bloodstream. It felt almost like an electric fire, tiny pinpricks travelling along his skin and spreading out. His muscles clenched, twitching when he brought his hand to tug the needlepoint out. The injector falling heedlessly to the floor, Kai braced himself against the sink and waited out the convulsions.

Slowly, the pangs died away, giving way to a sort of numbing heat. He swiped the sweat that was beginning to form at the back of his neck, swearing softly. He had been prepared for the sting, he always was. Regardless, the pain always caught him off guard, as if such a thing did not exist outside of stories. It irritated, and maybe even scared him, that he was not impervious to pain.

Scowling at nothing and blaming it on preoccupation with the new recruits, the Kai turned the shower on, stripped out of his undergarments, kicking them to the side, and stepped under the beat of rapidly warming water.

* * *

Rei stared at the ceiling overhead, just listening to himself breathe, not really feeling anything at all. At the moment, reality felt like granules of sand, escaping his hands. It was difficult to identify _this_ moment as being real, now. It was like trying to look through one of those dark tinted storefronts. From the vantage point outside, he could just barely make out the interior and it seemed so otherworldly, but he knew it was real because it was tangible, he could touch and feel it.

It felt like he looking at this moment from somewhere else, outside of his body. And it was very strange, because as he was lying on the bed, feeling the hard mattress beneath him, listening to the soft intakes of breath, he felt that nothing truly belong to _him_.

"You know you should probably sleep a bit, before we have to start with the morning programs." A voice to his right informed him.

Instantly that haze broke, with a small smile he turned to Takao on the bed beside his. The younger boy was clearly nervous; it was the first day of their training and everybody – except him and Max, it seemed – were on edge. Their Commander, who had not made a good impression to him in the first place, didn't make things any easier.

"You're probably right," he responded with a small shrug and turned his attention back to the carefully inspecting the ceiling.

He heard Takao shift on his bed, settle down and then remain motionless, for all of two minutes. "That escorting officer said that Commander Hiwatari could break a man in two if he wanted to... You don't suppose that's true, do you? He didn't look like such a bad guy, besides having a major superiority complex." The younger boy tried to make his voice sound nonchalant, though Rei saw clearly through the bluff.

"Nah," Rei replied with a small grin, "I don't think he'd be able to break a man in two, even if that was humanly possible. I just think he just has something shoved up his ass."

"That's just cruel, Rei!" The blond, Max – Maxie, as Takao had taken to call the boy – piped in from the bed on his other side, stifling a giggle. "He's you're commanding officer and you should treat him with respect."

Rei turned to look at the smaller boy, snorting softly. "He's also a murderous bastard that lives off the deaths of others. And I don't see how I can respect someone like that."

From across the small space between their beds, Rei could see Max's baby blue eyes widen. He felt a pang inside, feeling oddly guilty. From the first moment they met, the blond had struck him as naive, or just very childish. As much as he loathed for it to happen, he knew the boy would lose his innocence at one point, but that didn't give him the right to speed up that progress.

"But, Rei, you don't even know him, he could be —"

"And I don't want to know him. He's an asshole and a jerk," he replied, his tone acrid. "I want to know as little as I possibly can about him."

"I bet he's very nice, somewhere deep down inside," said Max demurely.

"Well, apparently that goodness is a very, very long way down." The older boy snorted again and turned to face the ceiling again, signalling the conversation over.

Rei knew that he was being unfair and he felt like he was betraying himself. Justice was the one trait that he believed in whole heartedly, always tried to adhere to, but a small part of him wanted to be unfair at that moment, if just this once. Truthfully, if he admitted it to himself (which he really didn't want to), there was nothing in their Commander that made him out as a heartless monster, just that Rei tried to believe otherwise. The pale, harsh demeanour made Rei wary, though he couldn't quite determine how. At the same time, he was fascinated. And that, he reasoned, irritated him the most.

The dark-haired youth realized, with no small amount of scorn directed at himself, that he was subconsciously looking for something to place all the blame on. He didn't want to be in the current situation, wanted nothing to do with war and bloodshed; he had a family to take care of. Was it really his fault that he was feeling a bit resentful?

He let a small sigh escape his lips, imagining where the children were at the moment. What if he made the wrong choice by letting them go? What if they couldn't survive without him? What if they decided to gallivant through the entire Sector 5 looking for him, and then got caught by the milts in the process? What if his contact did not hold true to his word? So many possibilities, so many 'if's and 'maybe's. The weight of them sat heavily on Rei's chest, as if with every moment the force of gravity increased.

"Hey, Maxie?" Takao's voice drawled in softly from his right. Rei didn't make a move though strained his ears to hear.

"Yea?" The blond responded.

"His not really like that, is he? All bastardly-like and stuff, I mean," replied the blue-haired boy quietly. Rei stifled an urge to smirk again.

"The Commander, you mean? I don't know, maybe, maybe not. He could be just bad at making first impressions," Rei heard Max hesitate then shift on his bed until he was nearly sitting, "or it's the stress levels. You probably don't know, but the Commander comes from a very wealthy family. He's the grandson and heir of Voltaire Hiwatari, one of the country's leading businessmen and politicians —"

By this point, Rei was thoroughly interested, not that he'd admit to it, and he was a bit startled when Takao leaped off his bed. He held his breath for a moment before his heart continued to pulsate again.

"Really!" Exclaimed the blue-haired boy, waking up the others in the room, if they weren't already awake. "You're saying that he's a walking moneybag? Then why's he here? Shouldn't he be at business meetings or something?"

The blond boy shrugged and settled back against his bed. "Maybe he's here for the same reasons I am."

"I should ask him for an autograph or something," muttered Takao, much calmer, pulling up his blanket. "I bet grandfather would appreciate that, he'd always been interested in politics." He snickered a bit, oblivious to the fact that he was mumbling to himself. "I can just imagine it thirty years from now, I can tell everybody that I once knew – actually fought long side with! – Kai Hiwatari, but then by that time he'd probably be the president of the place or somethin'. Maybe he'd remember me and give me a position in his office —"

Just then, a redheaded youth got noisily off his bed and stalked off to the adjacent bathing room, successfully ending Takao's tirade. Before going inside, Johnny, Rei connected the face with a name, looked over at the younger youth and smirked. "Don't be stupid, kid," he said sardonically, "he knows as well as we do that this isn't the place to get a social raise, it's where you're prepared to give your life away, willingly. And don't even try to tell yourself otherwise, that's just running away from the obvious."

Nobody said anything, didn't really need to. Takao settled back into his bed with a sigh. Rei couldn't blame him for trying though. He knew that the younger boy was just tying to lighten the mood.

After that, the entire room settled into a state of illusionary stillness. At the time, everything seemed very unreal to Rei. He was separated from his family, from his home, but he was given a new home and soon these people would become his family. He had an actual roof over his head, rather than a box-like dwelling, he was fed, given new clothes. For the first time in a long while he was completely clean of grime! This was what he wanted while living in the slums. And yet, now that it was actually happening to him, he couldn't believe or accept it. It almost felt like he was cheating on himself.

His musing was interrupted when the dorm lights suddenly went on and harsh, metallic glow filled the room. Several muffled hisses and curses were heard and then the frantic scrambling to get under as much cover as possible before all thought of sleep vanished into the atmosphere.

"Get up, all of you!" Was the arid command, and though it was spoken with relative quietness, the entire room fell deathly silent.

All eyes were trained on the imposing young man at the entrance to the dorm. Some astonished and even frightened gasps resounded in the room. Unheedingly, Rei narrowed his eyes, gripping his overlay tighter. As before, the dark-haired youth was feeling his internal defences rising up and flaring. The startled silence remained, though it seemed awfully loud to him. He could hear and feel everybody's breath and movement, especially the Commander's as he shifted from foot to foot almost impatiently.

Kai felt a sneer coming on when the twenty or so faces continued to peer at him unwaveringly. He had the distinct impression that he had just walked in on something that he was not meant to intrude upon. He bit back a soft growl. The escorting officer should have informed them of the morning regulations, which he had apparently had not. He would have to talk to Voltaire about the incompetence of the lesser cadets.

With just a bit more ice in his voice, he ordered slowly, as if talking to children, "Get out of your beds and stand on the left side of them. Keep hands at your flanks, backs straight and no fidgeting." He was pleased to note that they instantly did so, though sloppily.

"Every morning for the next couple of weeks I will come to do a headcount," he said and began walking in the interval between the beds, which were stacked on either side of the room directly across from each other. Every team of twenty-five was given a similar dorm, where they would be housed for the duration of their training. Each room had twenty-six beds, a night table per trainee, and showers in the back. Some of the more benevolent Commanders actually chose to remain with their teams, though Kai couldn't comprehend why.

"Even though you are now a part of the national army, you are still considered to be squalid criminals. Your belongings will also be checked regularly. If any weapon that is not assigned to you is found on your person, you will be charged with treason and punished accordingly." Kai ignored the little gasps at his statement and continued counting off heads mentally, sparing less than a glance to every person."You are expected to be awake, groomed, and have your beds neatly made-up by o' six hundred hours every weekday morning, which is when I —"

He stopped mid sentence and, much to his annoyance and chagrin, stared. He felt one of his eyebrows rising up. "Um..." He fumbled for a name, not familiar yet with all of their faces based on files he'd received.

"Enrique, Sir." Offered the blonde helpfully.

"Yes, Enrique," Kai said dismissively, as if trying to decide how to best clean the grime off his boots, "would you care to explain as to why you're dressed like that?"

The blond boy looked down at himself then flushed darkly. He seemed to be fumbling for words before managing an answer. "I always go to sleep naked, Sir."

The others stifled their snickers, or tried to at least. Kai felt an urge to rub at his temples. "From now on you are required to wear at least undergarments to bed."

Although the command went out to everyone assembled, Enrique ducked his head, abashed, and murmured a strained "understood, Sir". Nodding slightly, Kai continued with what he'd being doing previously. A few paces ahead of him was the boy that dared to challenge him so openly the day before. Kon Rei was trying to stare him down, golden eyes flashing darkly, his chin tilted just enough to give him an arrogant air. Absent-mindedly, Kai noted that the smudge of dirt that was on his cheek the previous day had disappeared; the dark-haired youth's skin was actually paler than he had first thought.

Kai's eyes lingered on Rei just a fraction of a second longer before moving off to the next face. Even after he passed the other boy, Kai could still feel that amber gaze on him, scrutinizing his every move. For some reason, by simply allowing his eyes to stray for half a second  
longer, he felt as if he had just sealed his fate. A decidedly unpleasant sensation settled at the pit of his stomach.

* * *

Kai settled back against the wall of the quickly darkening classroom, arms crossed over his chest, a look of sheer boredom on his face. He watched as his team – no, he decided, that wasn't right, calling them 'his team' felt too awkward – glancing wide-eyed at the telescreen. He wondered why that was the case then realized that most of them probably never seen anything like it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Max point to the large screen then whisper something to Rei, who laughed in return. There was a jolting pang inside of him before Kai managed to stifle it.

The lights turned off completely, the picture on the screen coming to life. Each classroom, if they could be called that, were set up like theatres, with seats escalating up and a large monitor set up in the front. There were no teachers, so all the 'lessons' were prearranged. In all honesty, Kai saw no purpose in these practices; they were just a huge waste of money and time. But when looking reasonably at it, he supposed it made sense.

Across the screen pictures flashed, an automaton voice droning out explanations. Kai didn't pay much attention, his eyes closed as if in sleep. He'd heard it all before. The enemies are bloodthirsty savages, murderous pigs. They kill women and children at will, destroy hundreds of thousands of lives simply for the knowledge that they are better, superior in power. The ability to change this cycle of bloodshed, to prevent these monsters from committing more crimes, is in your hands...

He fought the urge to snort. The other side was probably feeding their cadets the same shit. It wasn't enough to teach soldiers how it fight, they also had to learn how to hate. Hate the enemy, that motto laid the groundwork for patriotism. Hate was, after all, the ultimate motivation of warfare, it fuelled rage and inspired a sense of righteousness. If you honestly thought and believed that your opponent would not hesitate to destroy everything and everyone you loved, you would willingly fight. You would die happily, knowing that his blood was on your hands.

Strategically, it was brilliant. It warranted loyalty and faithfulness and raw ferociousness, legions of soldiers would gladly die at a single command. The Patron of War was enamoured with the Goddess of Death, after all. And those images broadcasted on the screen were very much believable. How would someone like these wide-eyed youths, who most likely never even thought about war for longer than five minutes, distinguish truth from lie?

Kai knew better, however, he was not stupid enough to believe a bunch of pictures. He'd met people, veterans from the Austraria wars, refugees. And when he looked at them, he didn't see anything different. They were not monstrous creatures that they were told to be, they didn't rape women and children for pastimes. In fact, when looking at them, he saw it in their eyes, a sort of loss or nothingness and fright. They were hollow, they'd seen death, delivered it, and they realized that it wasn't what they thought it to be. Kai had asked them what they learned, but despite how hard they tried to explain it to him, he still couldn't quite grasp the full meaning. Death, to him, was still a mystery.

Kai was startled out of his thoughts when the lights suddenly went on and his team was getting out their seats. A whole hour had passed and he had not even realized it. Conversations were starting around the room, it was time for a lunch break. He felt like he'd become a babysitter. There were other things he could do, like train or read, and, yes, he was capable of reading. Instead, he had to follow these weaklings to classes, then training sessions. Miserably, he thought that it was a waste of his abilities.

"Move out and to the canteen," he barked and watched in satisfaction as they did so, though a bit edgily. He noted that some of the guys, the younger ones, looked shaken and ashen. He expected as much, the reactions were always the same.

Silently, he followed after them, hoping that Mueller, from the previous day, had showed them where the Mess Hall was.

"Do you always do this?" Somebody asked him quietly, almost from behind. He glanced at the intruder, Kon Rei he determined even before looking at him.

"Yes," Kai responded mechanically, then paused as if in thought. "What are you referring to?"

"Always scaring little kids with those types of images." Rei pointed behind them, to the classroom. His eyes were narrowed once again, though they weren't as furious as the day before.

"No."

"No? It seems the opposite to me," Rei replied scathingly.

"I meant 'no,' they are not children, not anymore. So, no."

One inky eyebrow shot up and a smirk tugged at his lips. Rei felt like he willingly engaged in a game of cat and mouse with his Commander. "Aa. So then you lied to me."

"About what? Always doing this or scaring little kids?" Kai replied quickly. He had not expected the raven-haired boy to have a quick tongue.

"Both, neither." Rei struggled with his smirk becoming wider.

"Can't you decide? Is it both or none?" Kai narrowed his eyes.

"You won't believe me."

Kai got the distinct impression that neither of them knew what they were talking about. "About you being unable to decide?"

"No."

"Then what's the point in asking me if you already know the answer?" Kai asked.

"What's the point of asking at all?" Rei answered in question, dismissing the original topic of the conversation at the same time. "If you don't ask, then how will you know?"

"Know what, the answer to the question? What was the question?" Kai watched the brunet tuck a strand of hair behind his ear, which then promptly fell back into place.

Rei shrugged. "There was no question."

"Then why did you talk to me in the first place? You lied to me about having asked a question?" The Commander was slightly baffled by their verbal spar, it having no point what so ever but having some significance that he could not determine.

"I didn't ask you a question, just said that if there was a question it better be asked. And besides which, why would it matter if I lied to you, you lied to me." Rei said, his lips tugging up again.

"Why would you care if I lied to you, which I did not." Kai said coolly.

"Yes you did and I don't care, if that's what you're asking, but it matters."

"How?"

Rei shrugged again then caught sight of Maxie and Takao waving him over. He waved to them in return, mouthing that he'd be over there in a minute. Turning to Kai with a small grin, he replied, "That's unimportant."

"But if it matters, then how can it be unimportant?" Kai didn't feel as frustrated as he should have been with their conversation. He had the amusing suspicion that Rei was simply trying to get a rise out of him.

Rei flipped his hair out of his eyes, inclining his head slightly to the side. "It's trivial how it matters, just that it does."

Kai paused in stride, looking at the brunet darkly then, deciding that he was not likely to come up with any coherent conclusion, he resumed his pace. "So what was the point of this conversation?"

Rei smirked."There was no point."

"You said there was."

The raven-haired boy shrugged nonchalantly, as if dismissing that the entire thing happened."I lied."

There was gleam in Kai's garnet-coloured eyes that more or less proclaimed victory. "So you admit it."

Rei didn't answer right away, instead, he sped up and only when he was several paces ahead of Kai did he spare a glance behind him. Casually, simply, he said, "I only lied about saying that there being no point in the conversation, I did not lie about everything else."

The raven-haired youth grinned to himself and joined his two friends. Truthfully, he didn't know why he approached the Commander in the first place, just that he wanted to, but when they started talking, he realized the reason, as silly as it might have been. And it wasn't pointless; he found out that Mr. Frigid had a sharp tongue, almost a match to his own. When Max asked him what he was doing talking to their leader like that, Rei simply shrugged and savoured another furtive smirk. The Commander didn't even notice that he hadn't call him 'Sir' once.

* * *

Several days later, Rei found himself very glad that weekends were non-training days. He didn't expect himself to be so taxed after what seemed to be not very strenuous activity. Classes were easy because all he had to do was pretend to pay attention to the screen. But after classes also came training sessions. They were taught how to assemble plasma rifles, the basics of reconnaissance missions and how to carry them out with as little consequences as possible, and there were obstacle courses and problems that had to be solved using computer pads. He didn't understand why he needed to learn all this, couldn't comprehend why the government would bother spending time and money on all this preparation when all they had to do was kill and die.

Their training was over at nineteen hundred hours, with the remainder of the day a free period. There were many places to go and see at the Academy and especially on campus grounds, which were designed to house various recreational activities. But after training, all he had the gusto for was a shower and then sleep and an occasional visit to exercise room. Being used to a lot of physical strain, Rei was a bit shocked to find that his muscles ached after each practice. He was so tired, he didn't even have the energy to think of home.

Rei glanced about the dark theatre, noting the rapt fascination on the other's faces. It was late Saturday evening and the guys, feeling more at ease with each other and their situation, decided to go to a movie theatre. It was designed so that the viewer could feel himself inside the moving picture, be one of the characters. Rei had never been in such a theatre but, somehow, he wasn't as excited as he thought he would be.

He looked at the screen where the actress – a pretty brunette with blue-violet eyes and pouty lips – was mouthing something to the leading male. It was a historical drama about something he hadn't bothered to remember. Looking at them, he once again felt like he was standing behind the glass barrier, trying to grasp what was behind it. The man on the screen said something to the girl and a couple of gasps went out from his companions but he couldn't comprehend why they did that. The girl, the man, their predicament, everything in that screen, wasn't real. The emotions weren't real, though the actors were doing a good job of pretending it was otherwise.

So then, why did his friends look like they could feel and understand what the character were feeling, when they weren't feeling anything at all? Rei supposed that it was just a way to escape reality. When you allow yourself to forget, to lose yourself in something, reality doesn't seem as painful. Sooner or later, however, one had to submit to reality, regardless of the suffering that might cause.

Rei sighed softly and stood up, murmuring a quiet farewell to his friends, and made his way out of the theatre. Outside, the lights of the dome were dimmed, phantasms of stars ghosting on the ceiling. He grinned to himself ruefully. This was the only way for him to see stars, and though he knew they were fake, they still looked beautiful to him. The artificial moon would rise soon, as well. His first night here, he couldn't sleep, feeling so out of things, so he looked outside through the only window in the room and then he saw it, the moon. He'd heard in fairy tales that there was no beauty that rivalled it; he had to agree. But the moon also seemed lonely and cold – it was a forbidden beauty.

Before he even realized it, his feet had brought him to the Training Centre, where everything relating to physical discipline was housed. He came to the exercise room every other day, knowing from experience that it was best to keep his body in tune. When he reached the metallic sliding door, he paused. The console on the wall next to the room was lit up, signifying that someone was currently inside. The few times Rei had been in that room, he did not encounter anyone else. 'That is strange,' he thought, 'who in their right mind would come here on a day off?' Shrugging it off, he punched in the code for 'open' then pressed the 'launch' button.

Inside, he heard a strange thudding noise. Curious, he Rei walked past several huge exercise sets, waving his way among running machines and then stopped. He caught himself before a smirk managed to break loose.

"Don't you think that the punching bag had suffered enough?" His tone was tinted with amusement. Rei settled himself against a near-by weight lifting set. For all he was worth, he presented the ideal picture of nonchalance.

Kai was startled mid-swipe but the pause lasted less than a second before he delivered the punch to the (poor) punching bag and turned to face the intruder. Kon Rei, he thought almost balefully, erecting a scathing glare and sending it the brunet's way. He still could not condone the youth for the last time they held a civil conversation.

"What are you doing here?" He asked in answer.

He watched Rei shrug casually as if swatting off a fly. There was an air about him that stated clearly that he had no care in the world, or that he was too content with his situation to give a damn. Kai wanted nothing more than to be rid of him then and there. "I come here almost every day," he replied. "I've never seen you here before, though. What's so different this time? Decided to give me company?"

Kai ignored the question, stating one of his own. "Why are you out of your uniform?" It was strange to see Rei wearing anything but the dark-blue and maroon of their allotted clothes. The only time he saw the other boy in anything else was on the day they'd first met and then the day after, but then he was not wearing much at all and the interlude was brief. He noted that Rei was now clothed in the same white tunic and billowy pants as on the first day, though they were free of grime this time.

Rei shrugged and looked to the floor, where Kai's discarded jacket lay. "I don't see why I have to wear the same uniform on my days off, unlike you. What? Are you embarrassed that no one will recognise you without your standard clothes?"

Kai growled something softly under his breath which may or may not have been a "whatever" and turned back to his abused victim. Feeling his blood boiling in his veins, Kai dealt a powerful high kick to the punching bag, which sent the poor thing rattling pathetically on its support chain. Rei resisted the urge to grin – satisfied with the obvious chagrin he caused his superior – and braced himself much more comfortably against the exercise set.

Kai delivered blow after blow to his target, his vehemence increasing with each hit instead of diminishing. Sweat coated every inch of his body, it seemed; his shirt and pants were sticking to him in places, soaking through in others. Before he dealt a mean right hook, he brushed slate-coloured hair out of his eyes. The energy pumping through his entire body was intense, explosive almost. And all the while he could feel golden eyes tracing his every move, as if scrutinizing him and storing it all back for later use against him. He hated it, wanted the brunet to leave him alone.

"Does it satisfy you?"

Came the soft question; Kai wouldn't have been able to catch it if all his senses hadn't been directed entirely on Rei. Without pausing his movements, he asked, "What do you mean?" Then kicked again.

"Doing that." The raven-haired boy pointed to the punching bag though he wasn't sure the other caught the motion. "Do you get any satisfaction out of fighting an opponent that you know won't fight back? Or is that what you're taught to do? Attack enemies while they're defenceless, I mean?"

There was an edge in Rei's voice that jolted Kai off guard but he caught himself before he could whirl around and demand an elaboration of the statement. He dealt another blow then turned and walked back to where his duffle bag was. Bending low, he extracted his water bottle and a towel, gathering his discarded jacket and bag.

"No," he replied, talking a swing of the icy water. "I usually go to the training rooms down the hall, but today they were full."

"Training rooms?" asked Rei, disentangling himself from the weight lifting set. He watched Kai slowly approach him, towelling off the sweat gathering along his nape and collar.

"Hn," replied Kai conversationally and stalked past the other, heading for the door out.

Unsatisfied with the answer, the brunet followed him. "What are they?" He probed, feeling slightly annoyed.

Kai shrugged; a small victory for him. "Simulation rooms where you can fight artificial enemies."

Rei frowned and caught up to Kai, peering up at him with narrowed eyes. Offhandedly, he noted that Kai was a bit taller than him and had a larger frame. Not that it mattered, he told himself. "How come we've never been told about them?"

Kai glanced at the brunet then quickly reverted his gaze to the wall panel, on which he pressed a couple of buttons and waited for the doors to open. "You have not reached that level yet," he answered simply.

Rei felt rage slowly simmering within him. Trying to keep his voice from revealing too much, he demanded, "So the high lords can't trust us still?" Kai didn't say anything in response. Taking that as affirmative, Rei went on. "Wasn't it enough to imprison us here against our will, treat us like dogs and then feed us all that crap about how we're the only hope?"

Kai remained silent, though to Rei his muteness spoke quite clearly. It boiled out to them being criminals; even if they fought on the same side, died the same deaths, they were still nothing more than filth. Rei felt bitterness settle in his stomach and turned his head stubbornly away, refusing to show Kai how much that affected him. 'Screw him,' the brunet though angrily, 'he's as much a part of everything as his grandfather is. The Glass Prince was probably the one who ensured such treatment of us.'

Kai noticed Rei's expression change before he turned away. He found it odd, not accustomed to seeing anything but that haughty smirk but he chose to ignore it. Everybody had things to deal with, these new recruits more than others, perhaps.

The two remained silent until Kai suddenly stopped in front of training room twelve, his usual. The little green light on the console was off, indicating that it wasn't currently in use. He swiped his card through the slot, typing a command. Programme Theta Dranzer Level 2 initiating the computer informed him. He was prepared to go inside when he reconsidered and turned back to look at his unwanted companion.

"Are you going to join me?" He asked, his tone arid.

Rei glanced up at him, noticing for the first time that he had followed his Commander without even realizing it. Kai sighed quietly at the startled countenance on the other's face.

"Will you be coming inside with me or do you want to stay here all night?" He repeated just a tad more acridly this time.

Rei cocked his head to the side, scrutinizing his Commander, then grinned imperturbably. "Wouldn't that be breaking regulations or something? I thought you weren't supposed to trust me?"

Kai snorted; the nerve of that boy. "I don't trust you and it's not breaking any rules if a supervising officer is present with you at the same time."

Rei's smirk widened. "So you're inviting me for a one-on-one? Is that supposed to be a date?"

Kai blanched for a moment then glared hard at the other and turned to go inside, muttering a cold "whatever". He pressed the 'enter' button, though with more force than was required. The audacity! Didn't the fool know that such things could get him killed?

Rei didn't bother to think too deeply about his Commander's response and followed him inside the chamber. 'It's all good fun,' he told himself,' not like I meant it, I'm not suicidal.'

Once he stepped through the portal, Rei felt his world pause, jolt then come crashing down on him. The doors closed with a soft swoosh behind him; he whirled to see it completely disappear. He turned on his spot, looking around, stupefied. He was no longer in the cold, metallic world he was accustomed to; all that vanished with the closing of that door. A sun-bathed glen greeted him, like in all those stories he'd heard from old, senile men back in the slums. There were trees all around him, lush and green, towering high above; he'd never seen trees before, never thought he'd get to within his lifetime. A small brook snaked by his feet, sandy bottom showing through the crystalline water. And in the distance, there were mountains! Pale and ominous, looming like gods of the ancient world.

He found a smile tugging at his lips, breaking free without heed or care. A soft, warm wind brushed his bangs out of his eyes; he found the ghostly caress very sensual and closed his eyes, upturning his face to greet the sunlight. He heard birds chirping and laughed along with them. Never in all his wildest fantasies had he imagined anything so wonderful. This world, these trees and air belonged to a dead time. He felt like he had just stolen something very precious and sacred.

Kai watched the smile blossoming on the other's face then turned to crouch before the weapons' box, taking out his trusty katana; the smile on Rei's face was all too unfamiliar, alien almost in this day and age. It was frightening to see such happiness, astounding, too. But if Kai was truthful with himself, he wanted to see the smile. He chose this particular program for it's beautiful landscape, enjoying it himself and knowing that Rei had probably never seen such magnificence. And, maybe, he'd hoped that the raven-haired boy would like it as much as he did, that maybe he'd smile for the first time since their meeting a few days ago.

In the back of his mind, Kai noted that Rei had a nice smile. Not that that mattered, or that he cared.

"It's synthesised," he informed the brunet, coldly.

"It's doesn't matter," replied Rei with a shadow of the smile still on his face, sounding unfazed, "it's still beautiful."

Kai snorted softly. "You better equip yourself before the enemies get here. They're much more persistent on this level."

Rei shrugged nonchalance but obliged, crouching before the toolbox and selecting a pair of scimitars and a dagger, hooking it under his belt. "What are we fighting anyway?"

Even before he finished his question, Kai whirled around on his spot, bringing his katana down with a deadly swipe. The brunet blinked a couple of times, trying to get his heart working again. Then he heard a heavy thud, which definitely didn't belong to either of them. He glanced around Kai at the ground, wincing at the sight of the cleaved humanoid thrashing in pain. He was about to reproach Kai sharply when he noticed that the figure on the ground had no face and emitted no sound, or blood for that matter.

He felt disgust bubble up in the pit of his stomach and quickly glanced away. "What is that?" He asked.

Kai shrugged and heaved his katana on his shoulder, the sharp blade upturned. He noticed that the smile had disappeared off of Rei's face, to be replaced with something akin to fright. "They're the opponents the system creates especially for these purposes."

Rei stole another peek at the figure writhing on the ground and cringed, wrinkling his nose."Can't you give them faces?"

"That would be against protocol. Discrimination or some other shit." The Commander said, then quicker than Rei could comprehend, turned on his heel and sliced at the air. Rei held his breath while the aftershock settled then glanced to see a leaf come apart at the sword's blade. Kai shrugged in answer then brandished his katana once more; the brunet did the same with his swords.

All was quiet, only Kai's soft footsteps and Rei's almost soundless ones filling the glen. Having another presence close to his own felt very strange, almost like some sinful act. This was supposed to be his sanctum, his private place where he could be left alone with his thoughts; alone being the keyword, there. And now he had allowed someone into his little world, and as if by doing so, defiled its sanctity. Oddly enough though, he didn't feel a great sense of loss.

Rei's muscles were taught, especially in his arms and legs, ready to strike at any provocation. Kai stalked just ahead of him, depending on the brunet to watch his back. Rei noted that his Commander was tense as well. They were waiting for the enemy to come to them rather than searching for it (Rei refused to give something without a soul or face a human or living definition). Suddenly, his sharp ears caught as soft crunch just behind him; Kai obviously didn't notice. The raven-haired youth grinned and allowed his steps to slow down a fraction of a pace.

"It's —"

Kai was about to say something when he felt rather than heard motion behind him. He spun around, katana at ready, only to see Rei deliver a swinging kick after another, then thrust his scimitars in at each side of the opponent. The faceless thing fell to the ground, barely twitching. Rei stood back, swords poised mid-air, ready for another attack. Nothing in the glen moved for almost a minute before Rei lowered his arms, half-turned at a slightly stunned Kai and gave him a cocky grin.

"Well, let's get a move on before more show up," he said lightly, cheerfully almost, and walked over and ahead of his Commander.

Kai watched the fallen opponent thrash his last before disintegrating into nothing. Shrugging one shoulder in a show of composure, he followed his companion. He had wondered whether Rei was as skilled in a fight as he was deadly with his tongue.

As soon as he had thought this, another spectre of an opponent showed up at his side; a soft gasp from Rei indicated that he had encountered the same problem. The thing swung a heavy broadsword at him, barely missing grazing his left biceps. Kai ducked out of the way of another swipe, then jumped just in time to evade a hit from behind. Using the momentum of the jump, he struck his leg out, using it to kick one enemy and unbalance another. While the first one staggered and the other fell, Kai sprang back upright, driving his katana in and the up, severing it from the middle upward. As it fell, the other enemy faltered to get back on its feet; Kai brought his sword down on it, stopping it mid-action.

Those two down, he rushed over to where he last heard Rei; if anything happened to a cadet while he was under his care, Kai would be put to blame, even court marshalled in the extreme case. When he got there, Rei was getting back to his feet from a low crouch, two faceless forms writhing before him. Maybe Kai had underestimated him? No, he told himself, he taught himself how not to do that; it was one of the biggest flaws with physical conflict, one of the biggest causes of death as well.

"You should have told me that they could pop up like that," Rei accused him while wiping off the sweat gathering on his brow. He didn't sound too derisive, though; he might have even been enjoying this, for all Kai knew.

"It's very annoying —"

Before he could finish his sentence, Rei pivoted around, delivering a series of high kicks to the newly appeared opponent then finishing it off with one fatal slash. The action was so quick that by the time the thing dropped to the ground, Rei's long rope of hair was still flailing behind him. Kai resisted the urge to tug it back straight.

"As I said," he continued as if the interruption hadn't affected him at all, "it's very annoying when you're trying to say something and then it tries to take off a part of you with one of those big swords."

"Hn," Kai responded. "It helps to keep your instincts on alert."

Rei smirked and inclined his head to the side in a parody of a nod. "I suppose that makes sense. 'Sides, it's more fun this way." His eyes flashed darkly, then. Kai had only a fraction of a second to ponder what it meant before Rei pulled the both of them to the ground with a "duck!"

Before Kai could deal with the force of the impact, another enemy swooped down on them. Rei, at the moment almost lying on top of the other, kicked up with his legs, sending the closest opponent staggering back then back into an attacking stance. He sprang into a crouch, waiting for the next available opportunity to deal the lethal blow. Behind him, Kai quickly got to his feet, just barely bypassed a swipe at his head, then brought his sword down to slash the thing in half. When he looked back at his companion, Rei was already finished with his opponent. He grossly underestimated the raven-haired boy, Kai thought grimly.

Rei peeled off his shirt from where it was sticking to his abdominal muscles, waiting for his heartbeat to return to a much slower pace before he turned to his Commander with a lopsided grin. "You can't tell me that you enjoy killing those bloodless things! They don't even make a sound!" He said almost teasingly, though there was an edge to his voice.

Kai wiped the sweat from his neck, grunting in response. "I get what I can."

The crooked grin did not leave his face. "You can fight with me," he said with no trace of humour in his voice.

Kai had only a moment to look at him before another thing popped up at his side. He disposed of it quickly, for the first time seeing how irritating their sudden appearances could get. He looked darkly at the brunet.

"It's shameful to see warriors of your calibre wasting their skills on those things," Rei replied to the unspoken question.

"I could suffer heavy penalties with the Board of Directors. Engaging in fights with cadets is against protocol," he said slowly, though he wasn't feeling hesitant. He'd seen firsthand how well trained his teammate was, and if he was honest, he had been looking forward to a good fight for a long time now. Still, giving into it would be admitting to a guilty pleasure he never bothered to come to terms with.

Rei cocked his head to the side, glad for the lull in the income of enemies. "But if I was one of the participants and willing? Surely they can't charge you with teaching a cadet the fine art of combat?"

In the end, it was his own thirst for a challenge that won Kai over. Purposefully, he strode over to the suspended on seemingly nothing panel and typed in a few things. Initiate, OK? the computerized message was written on the little greenish screen. He pressed another button, signalling 'OK'.

Rei watched his Commander fumble with something on the wall pad, feeling his insides jolt with excitement. Without even realizing it, he had been looking forward to this confrontation since that first day in that brightly-lit courtyard. Kai, to him, seemed to have such a frosty exterior, and Rei couldn't help but wonder whether he was like that underneath all that cloth and skin as well.

"Finally all alone," he said with a little gleam in his eyes when the Commander returned to his side. He didn't wait for Kai's response before he dropped his scimitars to the ground, unhooking his dagger as well; Kai followed his example.

Rei rolled the already short sleeves to his shoulders and undid the top three buttons of his tunic. Kai watched him do this, feeling a bit scandalized. Though there was no dress code for cadets on days off he was still unprepared see so much naked skin. He wondered what that said about him. Almost as an afterthought, Kai caught a flicker of a silver chain just below the exposed collar.

"A memento from someone special," responded Rei when catching Kai glance furtively at the necklace.

The light-haired lad quirked an eloquent eyebrow at this but didn't question him any further.

Choosing not to elaborate, Rei stood before Kai. Arms and legs straight, he bowed low, saying, "It's polite to greet a worthy opponent before engaging in a battle."

Kai didn't mimic his action, taking a defensive stance instead; Rei soon followed. And it was also Rei who made the first move. He drew his right arm for a punch, but instead of following it through, brought his leg over for a sidekick. Kai, of course, had anticipated that and swerved to the side, dealing a sweeping low kick. The brunet, undeterred that his Commander had the first point, used his support leg to deliver a decoy hit on the lower calf then used the opening in Kai's frontal defences to punch him there. Kai flinched, then attempted a roundhouse kick, which was expertly dodged, then thrust his elbow into the other's gut. Rei instantly sprang back.

"Nice," he intoned, rubbing at his stomach, where he was sure a bruise would show up soon.

Kai didn't relax his tense muscles, knowing full well that his opponent could use any little falter to his advantage. "Where did you learn to fight like that?" He asked tersely in return.

Rei shrugged then resumed his defensive position. "You didn't think a piece of filth could fight like that did you?" Kai winced at the baleful words. "An old man in the slums where I grew up used to teach martial arts before the milts detained him for something or other. He used to give me lessons before he was captured."

"Aa."

Wasting no time, Kai charged at Rei, who once again dodged, counterattacking with a few kicks and an attempted backhanded blow. It was like that for the duration of the fight, neither giving in. A swerve to the right, a nicely executed kick, then jump. Looking at it from outside, it would have seemed like some elaborately choreographed dance. The movements seemed almost fluid, each thrust and punch was passion-filled, intense on a level beyond explosive or even mortal.

Rei's muscles were beginning to cramp up; he was sure that Kai's did as well. Neither relented, as if stopping now would mean the death of everything, the end to something too sacred for this world. The brunet pivoted on his spot, bringing his leg out for a kick, which Kai caught before it could be dealt. Rei kicked off with his other leg, enforcing a semi-somersault, then gyrating around to kick again. Kai caught the trailing rope of hair before Rei could finish the spin. Wrapping his fist around the hair, he pulled, hard.

"Ow! Let go!" Rei hissed in-between clenched teeth, reaching a hand to smooth at the back of his head where it hurt the most.

Kai did not relent but tugged harder, punching his opponent in the stomach. In retaliation, Rei kicked at his feet, trying to break the other's hold on him with a couple of side blows. Kai tried to block with his own leg. With that motion, the centre of gravity had shifted, both of their supportive feet in mid air and too much weight with their clutch on each other. Before either of them could attempt to steady themselves, they toppled over. Rei hissed sharply when Kai's hand caught under his head, pulling painfully at his hair. He tried to shove the other off of him but the Commander resisted, tightening his hold on the inky hair.

"That's enough, K–" Rei stopped himself before uttering the name, wincing when Kai grabbed him by the upper arm.

"What is it?" he hissed, emphasising each word with a painful tug. He didn't know what happened during their fight but something inside of him had snapped. Kai didn't even know why he was so angry, didn't know what he wanted to find out but that was beyond his ability to change at this point.

"What are you talking about?" Asked Rei in answer just as angrily.

"What is it that you're afraid of?" The was a sort of insanity in Kai's voice, one that scared even him. "Death? Are you afraid of it or just the thought? Is that what frightens you? That you would never be able to breathe again, to see your home again, to hear your precious rats calling your name? Is it nothingness?" That said, he found himself calming down, exhausted.

All too suddenly he was aware of the silence, of the ragged breathing of the other, of the chirping birds in the distance. His own body felt heavy draped over the other boy. The air in his lungs was burdensome, his heart pumping painfully into his side, his clothes suddenly felt too tight. The body underneath him was just as wired and sweat-bathed, cloth sticking to him in places. Without thinking, he found himself releasing his hold on the raven hair but not giving it up, twirling his fingers with a few errand strands.

Rei tensed at the questions, feeling a mixture of rage and a sort of barrenness seize him. All too keenly he was conscious of the body atop him. But the heaviness was not unpleasant, rather supporting. He struggled with Kai's hold on him, pushing himself away from their position. They disentangled slowly, Rei sat back, rubbing at the back of his head where he could still feel the painful grasp. A bile sensation rose up his throat.

"No, I fear leaving all those people behind." He did not look at Kai, fearing that he might see something he'd rather not. "I don't know about you, Glass Prince, but I actually take the time to care for people. I _can_ care. If I leave this world now, it would be my fault if anything happens to them. If I leave now, I'll never know if my kids will grow up properly. I'll never know if my little girl had children of her own, if Lai finally found the fairy tale end he sought. All I want is for them to know happiness. I fear not giving it to them. And I doubt that my death could achieve anything in that department."

He slowly rose to his feet, feeling the sense of loss returning to him. He let the silence settle without another sound, quietly walking to the spot where Kai had typed up the commands on the wall panel.

"Then what if your death means their happiness?"

He barely caught the soft question and didn't respond to it right away. When the brunet was halfway out into the hallway, he said over his shoulder:

"Then I would die gladly."

Kai was left sitting on the soft, inorganic grass. Staring at the open doorway, feeling his insides shrink in on themselves. At that moment, more than ever, he felt like a total bastard, a real-life Prince of Glass.

(Continua...)

* * *

_1Some of the things mentioned are actual prophecies. I took reference from Nostradamus, Merlin, as well as the in Apocalypse written by John the Apostle and from various religious scriptures (Hindu and Muslim) and connected them to real world events that happened during and/ or before 1999; obviously, not all things mentioned really happened though most. Hope none of the mentioned stuff offended anyone, but, hey, I'm trying to stretch this situation to merit a Doomsday here._


	3. Arcana Cordis

**A/N: **_If any of you still remember, this chapter originally contained a song I wrote in Latin. Clearly, it does not any longer. To reiterate, gratuitous swearing ensues._

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**Chapter III: Arcana Cordis (Secret Heart)**

He had one of those dreams wherein one knows that he's sleeping and dreaming but not consciously wanting to wake up. He almost felt as if he was watching someone else enact what was supposed to be his own role.

He was running and running, though he couldn't comprehend for what purpose or from what. And there was darkness, too, everywhere, as if it had swallowed everything – thought and emotion and life – and it was chasing him. In some small part of his brain that was capable of coherent thought, he realized that he was probably terrified but somehow that didn't feel quite right.

He dared to look down, to see whether that gnawing _thing_ on his lower body was really there, but all he could do was stare at his hands and gawk. Compared to the consuming darkness they glowed, an eerie deathly pallor, totally alien to him. The little cuts and calluses weren't his!

He tried to scratch at the skin, to tear the flesh so he wouldn't have to see it again; it didn't belong to him and it frightened him because, at the same time, it did. Something was bubbling in his stomach and in his throat but he didn't know what it was but it hurt! And then there were screams, or maybe laughter, but he couldn't tell which and didn't even know if it came from him and he couldn't take it off and there was blood, red and deep, so much unlike the darkness and his own pale, ghostly skin and his legs hurt from running so much but he couldn't stop because _it_ would get him and his throat stung.

He stumbled and fell. He felt his legs buckle painfully under him, scraping against something sharp. The blood continued to pool and _drip, drip, drip_ from hands that were not truly his. It hurt and he felt tears gathering, but that really couldn't be because he did not cry.

He felt invisible hands touch him, gently at first, like wisps of phantasms, then more urgently, tearing at his skin, sinking non-existent nails into his flesh, into his hair and along his face. He wanted to shield himself but the blood on his hands did not cease to gather and its vividness was truly horrifying. And inside... it hurt...

* * *

Rei woke up with moisture gathering in his eyes and a desperate breath escaping his lips. He sucked in greedy gulps of air, praying that he hadn't made enough noise in his slumber to wake the other occupants of the room; they'd have his ass for disrupting their precious beauty sleep. His heart and lungs felt heavy, his innards were churning, urging him to flee or puke. The raven-haired youth just closed his eyes tightly, willing the sensations away and knowing that they would, with time, disappear.

He bit the inside of his cheek, counting his every breath, as if having an exact amount would signify salvation, which in the wake of the nightmare could very well happen. Soon, the vision of blood against the paleness of his skin began to fade, he didn't feel the invisible touches along his face, and air came freely to his lungs. Tentatively, Rei cracked an eye open then the other, looking at his sleeping teammates, just to make sure. No one moved to reproach him; Takao shifted to lie on his stomach, one arm draping off the side of the bed, Maxie curled underneath his blanket, sticking a hand under his pillow, but no accusing stares. He sighed, glad.

Quietly, he shoved off the coverlet and slithered out of bed, heading for the door out of their dorm. Every level of the housing complexes had rotational patrols, to prevent anyone from entering (or leaving) unannounced, but a few nightly excursions had taught him their schedules and with practice he'd learned how to bypass them. He could hear the guards conversing softly just a little ways off, moving closer. He sucked in a breath and pretended to meld in with the shadows. Once they passed, Rei stealthily made his way past a long dark corridor and then the guard station, just before the back exit.

Outside it was uncannily quiet, but then, he didn't really expect anything else. During the weeks that he'd spent at the Academy Rei had learned that not many of the cadets were willing to stray out of boundaries, mostly due to harsh punishment (which he had had experience with) and sheer exhaustion. Unmindful that he was barefooted and wore little in the ways of clothing, the brunet made his way to the back of the building, where there was a garden of sorts. It wasn't much; no tall, grandiose trees or blue skies, but it was quiet and housed a couple of artificial plants.

With a small, shaking sigh, Rei plopped himself down on one of the several benches situated around the 'garden'. The fake moon seemed brighter tonight, he noted to himself, knowing full well that that was not possible. Still, it gave him some comfort. Only fragments of that dream had remained but Rei was familiar enough with it to know what happened next. He didn't know why he kept on having that same dream, but that didn't really matter because dreams were just that, images created by the subconscious mind. Sometimes the phantoms would take actual shapes of people he knew. Usually it was Lai or Kiki, staring accusingly at him but not saying anything, and sometimes it was one of his new friends – a younger blond named Oliver or Kenny, an auburn-haired bespectacled boy – looking miserably at him. On a couple of occasions he even dreamt of his Commander, stony faced and hard-jawed, glaring dangerously at him while tracing a hollow finger along his bottom lip.

Rei was not foolish or naive enough to believe that dreams had some metaphysical meaning. Dreams were no more than those brief interludes connecting the waking and the slumbering realms. Even so, the images were imbedded painfully into his retinas. He couldn't help but wonder whether he was running from Death, if the blood on his hands were his or not, if the screams were his friends' and he was the one that killed them. 'No! I'm not a murderer!' Rei told himself adamantly.

He took another glance at the moon, seeking guidance from it, and noted that the sky was much lighter; soon the dome's illumination system would turn on fully to begin the day. He wouldn't have much time to himself. Hands shaking slightly, Rei unclasped the silver necklace from around his neck. He didn't know how he came by it, from his mother most likely, before she died, when he was just an infant. He had not dared to part with it, even when his family had no money and hadn't eaten for days, he still refused to give it up. The pendant was an indistinguishable shape but he fancied it to be a tiger; he had heard stories about such creatures existing back in the ancient days, they were supposed to represent strength and grace. And oddly enough, it did give him strength.

Placing the memento back around his neck, he stood up lithely and crept back into the building, carefully avoiding the patrol guards. Back inside his dorm a couple of his teammates were already stirring, either from their own nightmares or with aide of internal clocks. Hastily, he walked back to his bed and crawled under his blanket, closing his eyes in feigned sleep.

Rei must have been very drained out by that dream because he found himself slowly drifting back to sleep. Before that could happen, however, a shrill alarm sounded off; it had been set up when his more sleep-attached teammates refused to wake up after several vigorous attempts. With a small lament at his slumber-less state, Rei rubbed at his eyes and pushed the blankets off again.

"But I dun wanna!" Came a muffled exclamation.

Rei turned to see Max pulling at Takao's blanket, who tugged back, trying to cocoon himself and then bury almost his entire upper body under his pillow. The brunet grinned while reaching for his toiletries.

"And it doesn't matter if you want to or not!" The blond said in response, puffing out his cheeks, annoyed. He pulled again, almost succeeding this time. "If you don't get out of bed Kai will have your head as decoration for his walls!"

Takao snorted, exasperated. "I'm sure he has enough bodily monuments, he wouldn't need to bother with another one."

Max sighed and dropped the coverlet, forcing nonchalance into his voice. "Fine, fine, do what you want. If you suddenly find yourself limbless the next day don't come running to me because, you know, I'll only shove it back into your face." With a small huff, the petit blond turned on his heel and began walking to the bathing room.

He was barely ten feet away when a deep blue eye peeked from its safe-haven under the pillow. Takao frowned, sticking out his head completely. "Hey, you didn't really mean that, did you Maxie?" He asked, a small tremor in his voice.

The blond didn't say anything, jutting his chin high and fastening his pace. Takao's jaw opened and closed pathetically, unable to form a sentence. Then, faster than Rei thought him capable of, he scrambled off the bed, stumbling when his feet got caught in the mass of blankets on the floor, and raced to his smaller friend.

"Hey, hey, hey!" He seized a hold of the blond's arm, tugging at it to gain some attention. Max promptly ignored him. "You know I didn't mean it like that! I just wanted to get some rest, Fates know that they drive us like dogs around here!"

Maxie continued to pointedly disregard Takao as the blue-haired boy hovered over him, stuttering excuses. Rei tried to contain a chuckle. Those two had the same fight every morning and they always made up before breakfast. The bond that had grown between the two of them was amazing to witness, especially knowing their different background. It was as if they weren't just comrades but also best friends. Despite himself, Rei felt a bit envious.

With a small, deceitfully cocky smirk, Rei followed his companions to the bathroom.

After a change of clothes (they were not allowed to wear their standard uniforms for the morning exercises) they made their way to where practices were held for their squad. Their cold-faced leader was already waiting for them there. The Commander no longer came for morning check-ups and their schedules also changed. They no longer had 'classes' but, rather, training and exercise sessions. Every morning there now were fitness drills before breakfast, tactile operations after that. That was to prepare them for the final stages of their training, or so Kai had said.

Rei resisted the urge to scowl when he was ordered to assemble into a line. Memories of that time in the training room haunted him, he could still hear Kai's words and that unnerved him. He resented Kai for making him admit it, hated himself that he did. The differences between their statuses were clearer than ever and Rei resented Kai for making them so apparent.

"This will be the last time you stay within these walls." Kai announced once his team settled down. "In two months' time you will be sent to fulfil your duty at the western front. For the remainder of those two months, you will initiate into the last part of your training. Later today this entire squadron will be re-located to the southernmost part of the Academy. A month after that you will be moved closer to the western border to complete your training."

He allowed the quiet murmur to spread. He knew that the prospect was not favourable, especially since many of these men had found a new home in the Academy. Even he, who had always known to expect it, was a little uneasy.

At a much less authoritative tone, he continued. "From now on, you will not be taught how to think like a soldier, you will be taught to how to fight and subsequently die like one. Today I'll teach you the first defensive manoeuvres." Of their own volition, Kai's eyes trained on Rei and narrowed. He noticed that the raven-haired youth was almost bristling."Kon, help me to demonstrate."

An arrogant smirk planted firmly on his lips, Rei stepped forward, unaware of the wary stares he received from his teammates. Kai had won their last fight, he would not give him the satisfaction of victory a second time.

Coming to stand opposite the man Rei tucked his rope of hair into his shirt, not wanting a repeat occurrence of last time, and bowed politely. Kai mirrored his action, though to the brunet it seemed a mockery of its original purpose. He flexed his muscles in anticipation, taking a defensive stance.

"Ready to play?" He said under his breath, acid dripping, before straightening from his bow and sending a scathing look to the other.

The ire in those golden eyes was enough to leave him breathless. So much passion, so much emotion, all for him? Kai didn't think he deserved to have somebody to feel that strongly about him. Yet at the same time he savoured it, gloated at the fact that he and he alone was able to see this golden, furious flame. And maybe he could fool himself to believe that that gaze, that passion was special, only for him. As much as he hated to admit, it excited him. It was like a taste of poison or glass candy. It was wonderful and addictive but it hurt, too, and that made him crave it even more. Every acidly exchanged word, every scathing look made him want to have another, and another and then more, until he owned everything.

At Rei's words he felt his heart begin to pump faster, the blood in his veins rushed at a maddening pace; it was almost dizzying.

"The best defence in a battle is to always overestimate your opponent," he said, remembering how he had not followed that same advice a couple of weeks prior.

Before he could rid himself of that thought and faster than he could blink, Rei had pulled back his arm and thrown a punch for his abdomen. Kai, of course, had anticipated that and grabbed the fist before it could come in contact with his body.

Their audience oohed at the move.

Kai tightened his grip on the other's fist for just a second before dropping it. Not turning to face his team, he said, "Always remember that your opponent may not necessarily find any honour in a battle —"

Rei hissed lowly under his breath, "Does honour mean pulling on your opponent's hair?"

Kai ignored him, continuing, "And as such he may throw a blow before you are prepared, in which case, too bad, you lose. Had I not been ready for Kon's punch and had he been a real enemy with a real weapon, I would not be breathing, still."

As soon as he finished his sentence, Rei delivered a high kick with his right leg, then pivoted around for another sweeping kick. The first one Kai blocked with the back of his forearm, the second one he also dodged though barely. He ignored the spectators' reactions, narrowing his gaze at Rei.

"What are you waiting for? Attack me!" The brunet said scathingly, quietly, just for the two of them to hear.

"That is why you must devote all your attention to your opponent. You cannot allow him to catch you off guard because that can, and will, be your downfall." Kai said without missing a beat. Rei noted that his breathing was still normal; his ire swelled up.

The raven-haired youth charged at the other, his fists aimed at Kai's upper torso, where he knew it would hurt most. One after another, his hands were seized in Kai's. He jerked away from the grasp but the hold on them was only tightened. Undeterred still, Rei kicked at the other's foot but that move, too, was stopped before it could be dealt. For all of ten seconds, the brunet remained motionless, caught and doubtful whether he should make the next move. He did notice, however, that his hands folded nicely into the other's, which weren't as cold as he had imagined them to be.

Exhilarated and hiding it well, Kai let a small, victorious grin to tug on his lips."And this brings up rule of combat number two: never let your emotions control you." He watched Rei's eyes widen slightly at his words before one inky eyebrow rose up challengingly, his lips twitching just so.

"You can't evade forever, _Commander_," Rei whispered, trying to sound haughty. "Surely you must realize that no battle can be won without going for the offensive. Now c'mon, hit me!"

The tone in his voice was more than just inviting, it was downright daring. A mix of adventure, danger. Kai never backed down from a challenge.

All too quickly, he released one fist and brought his elbow down on Rei's back, then kneed him in the stomach before he could recover. Kicking off with the same foot, Kai pirouetted to hit the other in the ribs and on the side of the face. Rei staggered backwards, feeling copper-tasting blood fill his mouth. To the brunet's credit, he didn't utter a sound, biting his lip. Kai noticed his lips puff out slightly with the rush of blood, their colour darkening to almost dusty rose.

Rei was holding on to his abdomen and where the kick landed on his ribs. His cheek stung, a nasty bruise already forming. He grinned and a drip of crimson escaped from the corner of his mouth. "I see you finally gained some common sense," he taunted the other, letting his eyes stray over the other's poised body for effect of nonchalance.

Kai gave a noncommittal grunt in response. Taking that as an invitation, Rei rushed at him. The onlookers watched in amazement, for what happened next was so fast that it seem like nothing but blurs of movement. One punch was thrown after another, the Kai evaded to the side, thrusting out with his leg, to which the brunet answered with a semi-somersault and a series of high kicks. The two sprang away from each other, breathing heavily. Kai made a motion to lunge at his opponent; Rei blocked him, preventing him from moving.

Up close, Rei noticed the fine beads of sweat slithering down the side of Kai's face, rolling down to disappear underneath his shirt. "So what's the deal with the new place, O Glorious Leader? Growing tired of us?"

Kai snorted softly and tried to deliver a punch, thinking that he could take the other's pre-occupation to his advantage. "You shouldn't be complaining to me; I'm coming with you after all."

Rei smirked, preventing the attack and lunging his own. "We can't just get rid of you that easily, can we?" He made a clicking noise with his tongue, springing away from Kai for another round. "Some bastards are just so hard to get rid of."

The Commander growled deeply in his throat. For the next couple of minutes they were a mesh of limbs, throwing fists and driving kicks. Kai felt as if fire had been set to his entire body and Kon had been urging it on. Adrenalin and pure thirst to be the victor gushed in his veins. Rei was an equal opponent, both in skill and ferocity. Their punches was evenly matched, as was the intensity. And, maybe, on some level, they weren't just fighting for demonstration or to prove a point to the other.

Rei dealt a roundhouse kick. He had not expected to be so angry at the other man, didn't even know why that was so. He just wanted to push Kai, to see if he bled the same crimson blood as he, whether he felt anything at all.

"Do you think we're that expendable?" He spat out angrily, dodging a left hook. "You think that just because we're not as rich or high as you are we can be just sacrificed!"

Kai bit back a snarl, furious at Rei for introducing a personal note into the conversation. He had no right to address him like that, to talk to him like he understood the complexities of his position. He lunged an aggressive series of punches, mentally trying to transmit how irate he was. "Shut up, Kon. What I do and how I choose to do it is none of your business."

Rei ignored him, continuing,"So, what? You think you're God around here? You think you're so damn fucking perfect that you can tell real people – not one of those computer-generated toys – what to do and be just because you deem yourself qualified to! Well screw you and may you rot forever in Hell!"

Kei felt the same sensation that ran through him the last time they fought course through his veins. Anger, hate and spite and every other emotion he could fathom all meshed into one, blinding him. He rushed at Rei, kicking and punching but not really comprehending much beyond that. He could barely distinguish the metallic taste of blood on his tongue; he had long since forgotten that they weren't alone and that violence between cadets was prohibited.

"You're just a selfish bastard!" Rei spat out. The things he said didn't make much sense to him, just that he wanted to say something – accuse the other of some crime he did not necessarily commit. "You're a fucking icicle, that's what you are! Do you even know what it is to feel pain? Have you ever lost someone you loved? Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that you don't know how to do that!"

Struggling to keep his voice neutral, Kai ground out in warning,"You're stepping out of the bounds, Kon."

"Really?" Rei made an attempt at a snort, forcing malice into his voice."Well, la-li-fucking-da! I may not know much about you, and I wouldn't give a flying fuck either way, but I do know one thing and that is that caring for people in not a crime! You, on the other hand, can't even conceive the concept!"

"And how do you know that? You don't even give a shit about me! How could you know how I think and feel?" The intensity in his own voice was startling, totally unfamiliar with him, but Kai didn't even notice in the heat of the fight.

"Isn't this what you were trained to be?" Rei growled, blocking a powerful kick. "The only thing you know is Death!"

Rei bit his lip, evading to the side of a kick and then rushing for the brief opening he saw in Kai's side. The other man couldn't block in time but counterattacked with a few well-placed punches.

While all his raged on, their spectators watched, mesmerized. It was a shocking display of speed, agility and sheer, stubborn will. Neither of the two gave way, ducking and kicking with almost practised grace. It was like dark and light had engaged into a battle for dominance; but the winner was uncertain. The entire practice area was silent but for the heatedly exchanged words, the meaning of which had been lost in the awe of the moment, and for the sounds of flesh meeting flesh.

Kai stumbled on his feet, springing away from his opponent. His shirt was soaked through with sweat, his hair drooped into his eyes; he flicked them away carelessly, wiping the perspiration from the side of his face. His hand came away with small traces of pink. He swore under his breath but lunged into another attack nonetheless. He knew that neither of them would give up as long as they still had breath in their bodies. And that was just fine with him; he didn't want to lose to Kon, because that would mean his surrender, and that was simply unacceptable, especially in this case.

Rei watched Kai stagger slightly and managed a lopsided smirk. For the moment he had the advantage, but that would soon change as his opponent was not one to be left behind for long. His own body hurt in all the places hits have been dealt, he couldn't even remember half of them, but that didn't really matter.

"What? Do you give up,_ Commander_?" He taunted the other while they regained their breath. "Too tired? Why, if I'd know you were so fragile I would have gone easy on you!"

Kai growled and lunged again. "Stuff it, Kon."

This little war of forces continued until a resounding clap reverberated through the arena. Startled with the interruption, both paused in mid-attack, realizing for the first time where they were. Their heavy breaths could be heard echoing throughout, everything else silent but for the persistent clapping. It was almost like everything else had faded to give them this respite. Kai, having Rei's collar in a death-grip, released his opponent and glared at the redheaded figure who was the source of the interruption. Tala was still applauding from the shade of a pseudo-Greek column, his angular face tilted just mocking so.

Rei noticed the heavy rise and fall of Kai's chest, the slight narrowing of his garnet eyes and the almost imperceptible twitch of his lips. He turned to face the newcomer. He wondered why this new person had this sort of effect on his cold, impenetrable Commander and that angered him somewhat. Kai didn't even have the guts to appreciate his own team but this redhead was worthy of his attentions?

"Bravo!" Tala called out across the silence disentangling himself from the column. "What a spectacular show! Any chance for a repeat occurrence? Or will granddaddy-poo be too ashamed? We can't have the Iceman suffer the punishment, can we?"

Rei raised one fine eyebrow at this, briefly glancing at Kai from the corner of his eye. What was this redhead talking about. He shrugged the question, passing it up for another time to scrutinize.

Kai snarled softly. "Stick to your own business, Tala"

This youth, Tala, clicked his tongue, bracing himself on one foot. "My, my, aren't you edgy? Did a cat catch you by surprise?"

Kai ignored him and for the first time since the beginning of the ‛lesson' turned to his team. They all were more or less gawking at the three of them. "That's enough demonstrating for today," he said lowly but it somehow sounded loud in the arena. "Hit the showers then head to Mess Hall for breakfast."

The tone in his voice suggested no arguments, lest one decided on a quick death then and there, and all of them scampered back inside the dormitories. With a small, almost patronizing glare at Tala from atop his nose, Kai headed inside as well. Confused and slightly irritated at the interruption, Rei glanced in the redhead's general direction and followed along.

"Hey, you!"

He was almost out of the arena when Tala's highly mocking voice stopped him. He turned on his heel, obediently keeping his posture straight and chin raised, as was protocol when facing a commanding officer.

"That was a great match," Tala said slowly, like talking to a child. A lazy smile spread across his lips. The expression seemed decidedly feline to Rei. He didn't like it at all.

"Thank you, Sir," Rei replied curtly, bowing politely. Something in the other's demeanour told him to be very cautious.

If anything, Tala's grin seemed to widen and almost dampened. "You're dismissed," he said in that indolent drawl.

Back stiff, Rei turned and walked off, all too aware of the icy-blue gaze following his every move. Tinny pinpricks ran along his spine, making the fine hairs on his nape stand up. He ignored the various aches and pains seizing at his body, refusing to show the redhead anything but a strong front. For some reason, it was important for him not to show any weaknesses in front of this man.

When he was in the confines of his own dorm Rei finally allowed his exhausted body to rest. Not minding where he was or who might see him, he braced himself against the nearest wall and let himself slide down it. It hurt, but at the moment he welcomed that pain; it confirmed that what had occurred earlier was, in fact, real and not made up by his imagination. He allowed a small, tired smile to grace his lips and rubbed at the bruise forming on his cheek. His teammate's voices drifted almost liltingly from the bathroom.

* * *

"Wow! Wow, wow... wow!"

Rei looked up at Takao with a small smile, saluting with his glass of undistinguishable non-alcoholic liquid. The navy-haired boy bounced on the balls of his feet, engaging into a long spiel of excited exclamations. Beside him, Maxie was just as eager, though he wasn't trying to beat the fastest speech record, unlike his friend. The other patrons of the bar they were in drowned out most of the noise, however, so their conversation was lost to unwanted ears.

After the demonstration match, breakfast and a brief moment to gather personal things, the entire division, composing of more than a hundred men, headed out to the transportation pods for their re-location. Word of the spar between the icy Commander and the low-life cadet spread through the entire Academy like wildfire. By the time they had arrived at their new location, every trainee and officer wanted to meet with this "dark-haired beast" that managed to not only survive, but to also equally match the Hiwatari heir. The only down side was that Voltaire had heard as well and requested an urgent audience with his grandson.

It was almost twenty-three hundred hours and Kai had yet to show up from his meeting with Voltaire. In some small way, Rei felt glad that the other man was in trouble. It was his own fault; if he didn't want to suffer the consequences then he shouldn't have retaliated against him so rashly. But at the same time, Rei felt a pang of guilt. He was the one who challenged Kai, he initiated it in the first place, all those weeks ago in the training centre. If it wasn't for him, Kai wouldn't be in trouble.

Rei could still feel the after-effect of that fight, still pulsing along his veins. Bruises and lacerations still covered his body. He felt that his ability to withstand such trifle pains showcased just how strong he was.

"Dude! I thought you were gonna kill each other or somethin'!" Rei glanced up again at Takao, hiding a furtive smirk by his glass."Man, that was totally awesome! Like two colossal powers joining or somethin' poetic like that! Can you teach me how to do that?"

The brunet took a swing of his beverage, enjoying the fiery rush of the beverage as it travelled downward. He tilted his head to the side, making a production of inspecting his friend studiously. Clicking his tongue, his said before taking another sip, "Nope, sorry, you don't have the physique necessary for moves like that."

Takao's face wilted for all of two seconds before he started in again. "Please? Oh pleasepleaseplease? I swear – I'll be the most perfectest student ever!—" He halted in thought, then his face scrunched up in mock outrage. "Hey! Don't have the right physique! What's that supposed to mean?"

Rei chuckled. "Relax, Takao. All I meant was that for someone with your... stature it would be pretty hard to execute moves like that."

Two angry spots of red appeared on the younger boy's cheeks. He fisted his hands, puffing out his chest. "I dare you to say that again, Rei! And you'll be so sorry if you do!"

The brunet got that same defiant glint in his eyes as when Kai called him out for that demonstration. Cocking his head to the side, he opened his mouth for a smart retort when Max's bubbly voice interrupted him.

"The two of you fought with such passion." The blond said almost off-offhandedly. Rei found himself flushing at the comment. "Do you have a personal vendetta against each other or something?"

Rei felt the humour drain out of him. Taking a long sip of his drink, he said dryly, "No, he just owned me a rematch." Which was partially the truth, anyway, just that he felt that there was more to their fight than just wanting to redeem himself. What that something was he didn't want to dwell on at the moment, still too wired up from earlier that day.

Seeing Rei's reluctance to elaborate, Max chose not to prod. Maybe it was the way the two of them had looked at each other, or maybe it was just that spark he noticed between them, but it was clear to the blond that there was definitely something between the Commander and his friend. It worried him slightly, but he attributed that to not knowing the full picture. Whatever it was, he told himself, Rei would tell him if he wanted to.

"Hey, are you going to finish that?"

Both the blond and the brunet were startled by Takao's simple question, who'd already forgotten that he might have very well been insulted not five minutes ago. Rei looked questioningly at the blue-haired boy.

"The food, dude, are you going to finish it?" Takao repeated, pointing to said item.

Curiously, Rei looked down at the 'food' in front of him. Grimacing, he picked up the smallish metallic container, examining it with a frown. He snorted. "New clothes, new place to live, new friend, new life – but the same disgusting grey mush." He sighed dramatically for effect, muttering a soft lament for the poor, poor whatever-it-was in the container.

"Soooo?" The blue-haired boy intoned, growing impatient. "Are you going to give me your food or not?"

Rei glanced incredulously at his friend. "Takao, for all you know this stuff could be something poisonous. How would you like to dine on one of those five-legged rats that we had back in Sector 5? Not so pleasant now, is it?"

Takao's mouth resembled a very comical 'o'. Blinking a couple of times, he exclaimed, "No way, dude! Dun tell me you had those rats, too? There were so many of them where I lived!"

Rei laughed at that statement. "Weren't they atrocious?"

Takao grinned cheekily. "Naw, I think they were pretty cool! I remember getting together with the rest of my buds, trying to see if it could – I dunno – run faster or somethin' with its extra leg!"

The dark-haired boy smiled at the memory. "Aa, I remember doing something like that, too, when I was growing up."

Takao guffawed loudly, throwing his head back. Just then, a small-sounding voice stopped him.

"Y-you're not serious are you?" Max asked, his blue eyes as wide as saucers. "There really aren't any of those rats, are there?"

Rei chucked to himself, taking another sip of his drink; he had forgotten that Max didn't grow up in the slums like he had, so naturally such things were unheard of to him. Takao grinned impudently and slung an arm around the petit boy's shoulders. "Afraid so, Blondie," he said in what he presumed was a forlorn voice.

The small blond seemed to pale at the concept, his eyes growing even bigger. Hastily, he dropped his own metallic container of food on the table, pushing it as far away as possible. Takao laughed at this, while Rei stifled his chuckles with his drink. When the mirth ceased, the brunet felt a sort of lightness take over him; like everything at that moment was fine, perfect in fact.

"So," Takao began again, taking on a casual tone, "about that food...?"

* * *

While Rei was sitting at the dimly lit bar with his friends, Kai had just arrived at their new location. He'd been there only a couple of times before that but he knew his way around enough to make it to where trainees were housed. This section of the Academy was a new addition, requested specifically by Voltaire. It was located in the southernmost district of Sector 1 and was designed specifically for field training programs. More than half of this division was artificially recreated tropical forests and other training arenas; the housing complexes and recreational establishments took up the other part.

Kai glared darkly at the air, wanting it to shrivel up before him. He was in a very foul mood and he'd be damned if he suffered alone. The match between Rei had left him feeling both edgy and empty. He wanted nothing more than have Tala's pompous head for the interruption, and for just being a noisy prick. His body was sore all over and he was going to have to take those drugs again; his day couldn't have gotten any better. And, as if to add insult to injury, immediately after hearing about his fight with Kon his grandfather sent for him. What ensued seemed like hours of pointless bantering between the two.

Kai growled deeply in his throat, clenching his fists to get rid of the unpleasant thought. He did not want to think about Voltaire, or Rei for that matter. Rei had too much influence over him and that wasn't a good sign in his books.

Suddenly, a noise, like a chortle, halted him. Kai stood still, not even daring to breathe. The sound was coming from his right, where the buildings towered to create an illusion of ominous-ness. He was about to continue on his way and his dismal glaring when a second noise followed. Cautious, and maybe even a bit curious, he stalked to were the sound was originating, his face a stony mask.

He was prepared to meet a group of conversing cadets, or even a spy for the other side on a reconnaissance mission, but Kai was not prepared to see a drunken man slumped against the wall. Alcohol was prohibited on Academy grounds, it's usage a high crime; so this man must have smuggled some in from other districts. The man seemed to notice him because he looked up and smiled a wide, shaky smile.

"Ah, officer, are you here to take me away?" He asked almost sleepily; Kai noticed that his eyes were a very pale cobalt blue. "Won't you let me have some more? It's late and I think, um... hmm... I don't know what I think, but that doesn't matter now, doesn't it?"

Kai didn't say anything in response, looking at the man with one eyebrow raised. The drunkard shrugged lazily with one shoulder, taking a long gulp of his drink. "Here, take a seat won't you, boy?" He gestured to the ground. Kai's first instinct was to sneer down on him and then walk away, but despite himself, he found himself sliding along the opposite wall. The man went on. "How old are ya?"

Kai took a long moment to survey the man before replying. He appeared well beyond his prime, with a rounded girth to his bones and sagging skin in places. His hair was grey and drooped haphazardly around his face, which seemed oddly angular with protruding bones and scarred flesh. But his eyes — it was the man's eyes that stood out the most. Everything else seemed almost dull and dead in comparison, like a shadow of the man he used to be. The eyes however remained alive, the only specks of colour in an otherwise grey realm.

"I'm twenty-two," he replied slowly after the long pause, watching the man for any negative reaction.

The sot smiled another toothy, indulgent smile. "Aa, so young. It's nice, isn't it? You must have everything." He seemed to pause in thought, then proffered his bottle to Kai. "Want some? It's ale; not very easy to come by nowadays. Like trying to find fish in the sea."

Kai shook his head negative. Instead, he asked, "What are you doing here?"

The man shrugged again, taking a swing of his ale. "Hm. I'm there and there, and sometimes I feel like I'm everywhere, I think, but that isn't really important. You're here, too, you know, which means that we're both here. Now why we're here is a different matter all together, but that doesn't matter either. We just are."

Kai raised his brow in question but didn't say anything. It didn't seem as if the man was even talking to him.

The drunk leaned his head against the wall and remained that way for some time, taking occasional sips of his drink. Eventually, he continued. "It's like a dream, you know? Like a wonderful and beautiful and swirling dream. But it's horrible, too, you know? You wake up screaming because it's too painful and all you see is the blood and yourself and them, and you want to escape it all and never dream again but at the same time you want to keep on dreaming... maybe you have nothing else to do but dream. Or maybe you don't dream at all; maybe you're just dead and keep on having to wake up from that mortal sleep only to go on and then die again with each onset of night.

"Aa, Death." The man smiled again, fondly almost, closing his eyes briefly as if in memory. "Death is a jealous old whore. She has the grace to step down from her ebony throne in Elysium and dance among the living. She takes her choice of paramours, regardless of beauty, sex or power, then flirts with them, coquettishly, and takes them with one final, fatal kiss." He smacked his chapped lips together in an imitation of said kiss, slurring saliva and alcohol on his chin, then took a long drag of his ale. Kai bit back the instinct to flinch, undeterred by the disgusting image.

"But you know," the man continued, unmindful that his companion had not said anything for a good ten, fifteen minutes, "Death is very envious. She has to be victorious; can't really take it any other way. And she loves war as well. So much blood lost. I wonder, do those people realize it, or do they just think that having a sense of duty gives them the right to give and take life at will? Hm... But She's not that bad, Death is. She's the only constant thing in this world. You may change, and so might the next person, and everything might change – but Death will always remain. She's a benefactor, you see. She takes away the suffering to bring an eternal, blissful nothing. Heh, never expected Death to be benevolent, have you boy?"

The man glanced at Kai for the first time since his speech began. His eyes were misted, glazed over with alcohol and near-comprehension and a sort of ageless tiredness. It scared Kai somewhat, but not like a petrifying fear, rather a fear that slowly ate at his sinews, wrapping along his spleen. Dimly, he was aware that he was nodding to the man's obscure question.

The drunk sent him another big smile. He glanced at the ground and that smile seemed to fade and die in on itself. "But, then," he began anew and his tone sounded almost wounded, "...why does it hurt? I keep on seeing their faces – in dreams and nightmares; wherever you are, you're always are aware of them, and you know, you _know_ that you caused their deaths. Have you ever seen the real Death, boy? Have you? It's terrifying... it's like... nothing..." The man made a small, strangled chuckling noise in his throat, almost desperate.

"I'm a soldier." Offered Kai in answer.

The drunk looked at him long and hard, those pale eyes seeing right through him, like he was not there at all. "Aa. I was a soldier once, too. The best in the squad! I thought that being strong meant that I could endure anything, that I could shift mountains with my bare hands. I thought that the more people I could kill the more glorious my life would be. But... why do I keep on seeing their faces? Why? Why? Oh, fuck it, why?" His voice cracked with a strangled half-sob and he tried to stifle it by taking another sip of his ale. "...There... there was this boy, and I remember fighting him and thinking that he was way too young but then he was screaming something and charging at me and his blood was everywhere... God, my hands, I can still feel his blood on my hands... and... and..." he broke off stuttering, pointing with his finger at the air as if drawing a dotted picture."... And... this... there was another, a friend... I thought we were gonna come out of the war together and marry on the same day and have children and live to be old... I still remember the look on his face when he died..."

Tears were swelling up in his eyes. Given their pale shade and the added glaze of tears, it almost seemed as if he was sightless, blind with pain and memory. Kai didn't say anything, didn't even dare to move. Eventually, the slight sobs that rocked the drunkard's body ceased, replaced with occasional hiccoughs. He looked up at Kai, but still his eyes were unseeing. The youth noted how the line in the man's jaws hardened, as if he was trying to suppress his anger.

"What is it that you want, boy?" He asked, and sure enough, there was a fury in his voice, but there was destitute as well. He went on before Kai could utter an answer. "Is it glory? Fame? You seek the spoils of war so you could harness them and come on top, shining, isn't it?" Then the man's tone mellowed to a sort of melancholy. "Say you do survive this, say you become a hero, what then? Sure they'll know your name for a year, two, a decade, maybe, but after that, what it'll be then? You'll disappear forever, from memory and from existence. And if no body knows who you are, then do you truly exist, as the hero you made yourself out to be, or do you just keep on drifting and drifting with the same dream of grandeur? Tell me, boy, is that what you're seeking? You've never seen your men die, have you?"

Kai didn't say anything, scowling darkly at the drunk, or trying to anyway. The man shrugged and took a long drag of his ale. Kai noticed how worn the man appeared. It was as if the life had been sucked dry out of him, leaving him an empty, hollow shell. A sort of petrifying numbness spread over the him, though he couldn't quite determine why.

This drunkard's words, though jumbled, had some truth to them, almost like an epiphany. In a way, he had always known this to be the truth, just that he never really put it in a coherent context. And now it seemed almost terrifying, to hear it voiced out loud. Kai claimed that he did not fear Death, but then, did he really know what it was? He'd heard of it, even studied it from books, but he'd never been on the receiving end of it.

What would he do when it came? He didn't care enough about himself dying, but what about other people? Rei had lied when he called him uncaring. Kai did care, though he refused to show it. He cared about all the people of his country, of the world. About the innocent, and the women and the unborn babies. He would give his life for them, he had decided a long time ago.

There was an ache of sorts inside of him. Like a scratch he couldn't quite reach, and he wanted to. He was missing something in that equation, but what? He didn't know, wouldn't ever, most likely.

After a long while, the lazy smile returned to the man's lips. He blinked un-synchronically at Kai, holding up his drink once more. "But ale," he crooned, "ale is the only dependable thing, is all I say. You can never be lonely or afraid with ale, my boy. It's not cold or anythin' but you sure you don't want some?"

Kai shook his head, forcing on a half-grin, just to show that he wasn't feeling as defeated as he was. It didn't fool him.

* * *

It was several days later that real training began. Needless to say, it was beyond exhaustive. Every day, Rei crawled in the bed wishing that he could never wake up again. His body seemed to hurt everywhere and it was a strain to stifle weary groans. Everyday was composed of various exercise routines, each one difficult and strenuous. The day before they had an obstacle course that left nearly half his team with permanent scars. Takao still bragged about the cool new mark he got on his forehead; he said it made him look macho and served as a memento, to show his future kids.

This day, however, it was a much different drill. This one was going to last for a week in the recreated rainforest. The objective of the mission was still unclear to them. It was two teams of twenty-five against each other and everyone participated. Rei glowered mentally at the concept. Fantastic; he was going to be stuck with his icicle of a Commander for a week. Sharing the same space and air; it unnerved him.

Things have not become any smoother between them since their match. If anything, relations between them grew even more tense. Whenever they were in each other's company, petty bickering would ensue. Always it was about Kai being a selfish, uncaring bastard and Rei being a filthy, unworthy rat. And then there would also be glaring fights between them. It was almost tiring. As fun as the prospect seemed, Rei would hate to constantly be at each other's throats with Kai. They had to survive together on this mission, didn't they? That included being civil to each other, and to cooperate, actually. Not surprisingly, that thought was not very appealing to him.

He allowed himself to wallow in thought a second more before hefting the duffel bag he would need for mission on his shoulder and stalked out of the room with the rest of his friends.

"Isn't this exciting?" Asked a mousy-haired bespectacled boy, Kenny.

Rei just shrugged, indicating that he was in a cross between not caring and hating the fact that his commanding officer would be there as well.

"It's not exciting!" Whined Takao, rubbing at his sleep-crusted eyes. "It's torture! How do they expect us to get up so early?" He was ignored for the most part; Max patted him in condolence.

The artificial training grounds were located within walking distance of the sleeping complexes. Halfway there, Kai joined them, his own bag of supplies slung around his shoulder. He barked instructions authoritatively, also briefing the mission parameters. Voltaire had warned him about any other slip-ups concerning his team (and Rei in particular). He growled at the memory. Kai wasn't about to let these weaklings dig him into a deeper hole with Hiwatari.

He led his team to a stop before the entrance to the training grounds. A wall of glass separated it from the rest of the Academy, to prevent vandalism, it was said. Kai turned to his teammates, surveying them with a glare. "Take a deep breath of air all of you," he stated with false venom in his voice,"because you will not exit this place before the week is up – unless you befall unfortunate circumstances. Keep in mind that the weapons here are real. This is a survival mission, not a game. You are not allowed to kill any of the other side and vice versa. If you come to be seriously injured, consider yourself dead. Also, I will not tolerate any brave or daring acts.

"A base has been allotted to each side. Our's the easternmost one. Once tent is set up, there will be a weapons inspection. The mission officially begins at eighteen hundred hours." With that, he punched in the code on the computer pad next to the entrance.

The doors opened with a light _swish_. Immediately, hot humid air assaulted them. Rei shut his eyes, turning his face away. He had never been in a forest, had imagined it to be beautiful glens (like the one Kai showed him), but seeing the mass of trees shattered his ideal. He stepped onto the soft glass, shrinking back slightly when the soles of the soft slippers he preferred to wear soaked completely through. The doors closed behind him with another _swish_. He felt as is he was trapped.

He looked up. These trees were much different from the ones in the training room. Here they towered, almost touching the ceiling and obscured the 'sky'; a few meagre rays of light escaped through the broad leaves. There was a sort of adulterated filthy smell, like musty or decaying plants – or flesh. Rei scrunched up his nose, trying to breathe from his mouth. It was hot as well; even with a simple shirt on he found himself beginning to sweat. The youth undid the first few buttons of his shirt; he noticed the others follow his example, even Kai.

They set out for their base soon after that. The trees seemed to purposely bar their path. Rei had to jump over several fallen logs and bend over low-hanging branches; small tears were beginning to from on his clothes. Ahead of him he saw Kai slash down a couple of overhanging roots with a machete that's he'd brought with him. Rei narrowed his eyes at this. Their leader seemed to forget to mention something of that sort to them.

He shook his head to get rid of the thought and the noises the others created, concentrating on his own path. This place, he thought, seemed almost malicious. Even though the dome's system provided enough light to blind a man, this place was dark. Rei ignored the urge to look around him, in case anything lingered in the shades of the trees. Every little noise seemed out of place. The soft crunching of twigs and leaves under his feet felt to come from some other place. Other than the quiet murmurs of the others and the movement of Kai's sword, everything was deathly silent, as if sound was suddenly removed from this place.

He narrowed his eyes and sped up a bit, just close enough to his leader to hear him suck in deep breaths and to see his exposed forearms coated in sweat. He smirked indulgently.

"If you want," he began with drawl, "I can take over for you – if you're tired."

Kai glared at him from the corner of his eyes. "What would it matter to you, Kon? Aren't you supposed to be basking in that fact?"

Rei shrugged one shoulder carelessly. The steam from their last fight had dissipated. He saw nothing wrong with teasing his taciturn Commander. He let a slow, caressing grin spread over his lips. "I was just wondering – you know, actually being _worried_; can you even understand that? – about you. We can't have our leader getting sick on us. Why, what _would_ we do without you?"

Kai glowered at him, picking up pace. "Stop playing games," he threw over his shoulder.

Feeling ire swell up again, the brunet called out in what he hoped was a mock-scandalized voice, "Who said I was playing? And I do remember you saying something about this not being a game."

Kai just disappeared into the greenery, leaving a trail of emaciated tree branches. Rei resisted the urge to puff out his cheeks in annoyance.

After that there was a flurry of activity. Their base was located is a small clearing, the larger of the tents were already set up as were the cooking equipment – Takao virtually squealed at the prospect of real cooked food; individual tents had to be installed, though. Each tent would hold five people, it was decided, with the main tent (which also served as headquarters) would be Kai's. After the tent arrangements were decided, which was a long and painful ordeal, came lunch, and it, too, was horrible because not many of them could cook. And so it was with a foul mood that everyone met for the first official meeting of the mission.

Kai stood over the large makeshift desk, an arm braced against an edge. He rubbed at his temples, feeling a headache coming on. "This," he said, pointing to a dotted circle on the digitalized map that was spread over his desk, "is where the enemy base is. This –" he pointed to another location,"is where we are. The objective of this mission is to, basically, outlive the other side. Not only that, but we must also capture their battle plans, internal information, weapon's inventory, et cetera."

He looked around the table at his men. Some were nodding in agreement, others were rotating between fidgeting nervously and inspecting the map. "In addition, there will also be several physical confrontations between our two teams; this is necessary to complete the mission."

"And when will those be?" Rei asked, glaring hard at Kai.

His garnet gaze lingered on the brunet for a second before he replied with a shrug of a shoulder. "That will depend on the situation. In cases where it is a surprise attack or you are outnumbered, you have to return to base. I don't want to lose men on the count of self-righteousness."

"So what do we do now?" Someone else asked, biting his lip nervously.

Kai thought about it for a moment. The other team had started a day before them – it was necessary to give one team advantage over the other at the beginning – so they had the time to set up defences. "I'll send a scout for a reconnaissance mission. We need to gather information about their statistics before we do anything."

"Who do you suggest to go?" Rei asked again. Had Kai been paying attention to him, he would have noticed that those golden eyes had not strayed for him.

Kai's glanced was long and piercing. "You," he answered, simply.

Rei gave him a dirty look. Forcing on a sneer, he asked, "Why?"

He turned back to gaze at the map, saying,"Because you're the fastest one I've got. Speed is crucial in investigative missions. It could mean life or death."

Rei growled under his breath. No one else volunteered to take the job.

After a half an hour or so of discussion, the team dissipated to its own posts. Rei was send back to his tent, which he (naturally) shared with Takao and Max, to change into darker clothes. Kai had said that the task, though only basic, would still entail some risks. Darker, looser clothes made for stealth, as well as room for any documented information he could find. Re-tying his long hair, he fastened a small, lightly curved sword to his hip and strapped on the water flask he thought he would need.

With the onset of dark, he walked to the edge of the clearing, prepared to – as Takao put it – get tumbling. He noticed a couple of the others stalk out from their tents or posts, watching his progress with large, frightened eyes. The brunet was very much aware that his Commander was not among those assembled. He pulled on a haughty smirk, clicking his tongue, winking at them.

"See you guys in the morning," he said before he crossed the threshold that divided the clearing from the darkness.

And almost instantly he had the sensation of being swallowed whole. Wherever he looked, shadows loomed. He couldn't hear the noises coming from the camp, could barely even hear his own breathing. Almost as if everything else had been wiped out. He then realized that nothing existed in this forest except soldiers. The absence of living creatures was what gave the forest the foreboding atmosphere.

Eventually, the murkiness cleared before his eyes, replaced instead with an otherworldly greyness of sorts. He grinned to himself, thinking that it would be a fun excursion. Deftly, he leapt up and over a fallen tree. Picking up the impetus from the jump, he sprang from the low root of the next tree, and then the one after that, half-running. To the left and to the right he swirled and ducked, skittering over branches and roots; it looked almost like he was gliding on air. The brunet smiled at the air rushing through his hair and against his skin.

Ten minutes into his run, his heart was beating hard in his chest. He paused to rest and survey how far he'd gone. Crouching low to the ground, he took a sip of the cold water in his flask, splashing some onto his hands and rubbing the moisture into the hot skin of his nape and chest. He then took out the digital mini-map and compass he was given just before leaving. Confirming his suspicions, he put the map back into its compartment in his trousers and fastened the water flask back around his shoulders. He was about ten kilometres southwest from the enemy base; his next course of action was crucial.

At a much slower pace, Rei ran to the determined direction, careful to be light on his feet. He gathered that the other team had either motion or sound detectors set up. The brunet was confident that he would be able to 'disappear' before the indicators picked up on his location, but he wasn't so certain about sound. The ground was a dark tapestry, brief catches of the artificial moonlight escaping through the leaves to land on the ground in a patchwork of sorts. It was hard to tell on where to step and not to; even the snap of the smallest twig could mean his discovery. Rei really didn't want to mess up this mission.

Kai had challenged him this time, so losing would be unforgivable. Rei hadn't doubted for a second that his Commander was competent enough to be able to complete this task by himself. As much as he hated to admit it, Kai wasn't just good at what he did, he was impeccable. Were it not for the bold look in his eyes – which at that moment seemed almost a deep, cardinal red – Rei would have flat out refused to accept. He shrugged; he needed to show his true capabilities to Kai anyway, he might as well do it with a bang.

When he reckoned that he was about five kilometres away from the base he stopped, crouching low against the base of a grandiose tree. His eyes and ears trained on his surroundings, he waited for any sign of the enemy. Ahead of him, he saw faint traces of light. It was barely distinguishable with the rest of the greyness, just a flicker of pale silver amongst the trees, like some ghostly sparkle. Rei determined that those were the sensors he had predicted.

Suddenly, he felt a sort of heaviness around him, like there was an added weight to his own. He whirled around, backing against the tree. Immediately, a hand closed over his mouth. For a fraction of a second panic seized him. Was he really discovered? He tried to rip the hand away from his face but found that extra weight was also pinning him down. White-hot fear clutched at him, making him almost dizzy. Taking reign of his nerves, he kneed his assailant in the stomach, sending him staggering back.

Quickly, Rei sprang back to his feet, holding out his arms in an attacking position. He heard the other muffle a curse. The brunet blanched.

"Kai?" He asked, choking on the name. Offhandedly he noted that it was the first time he had called the man by his name. He saw his Commander crouch down beside the tree, motioning for him to do so. "What in Seven Hells are you doing here?"

"I'm looking out for your ass, Kon. And you didn't have to attack me," he bit out tartly, glancing around the tree trunk to see if the exchange had caught the attention of sensors.

Rei ignored the second statement and coerced a lilting note into his voice. "Really? I thought you didn't care about me?"

Kai growled something under his breath, then saying, "Stuff it, Kon. The day I come to feel anything for you is the day I die."

"Aww, I'm hurt." The mock-pain in his voice felt oddly deceitful. Feeling just a bit awkward, he changed the subject, "If not for me, then why are you here?"

"Hn," Kai muttered, ducking his head when the distant light seemed to come closer. "I can't have incompetent fools mess this up for me."

That same angry ball that he usually associated with Kai began to gnaw at his stomach. He didn't know why Kai's words struck him so hard. He knew it was just meaningless syllables coming out from the other's mouth, and it wasn't as if he cared about what others thought of him. So why did it hurt when he was referred to as an 'incompetent fool'?

He shook his head mentally, getting rid of the thought. Balling his fists he retorted sharply, "Then why do you trust fools with such things? You could have done this on your own!"

Kai glared at him darkly. "Because it's necessary to trust people sometimes," he replied, turning back to scouting. Then, more harshly, he said, "And will you be quiet? This isn't exactly the best time to be having idle conversation."

Rei ignored him, completely dismissing the softer note Kai's voice had taken (though it was there for less than a fraction of a second), answering sharply, "Why don't you just leave me here. I'm more than capable of carrying out this mission by myself. I've lasted this long without you, haven't I? I don't need you looking out for me, I don't need you at all!"

During his little spiel, Rei's voice rose up a notch. Noticing this and that the brunet was only partially hidden by the tree, Kai reached out his hand to try to cover the other's mouth once again. "Will you just shut up," he growled in warning.

He saw Rei tensing when their skin made contact. Shrinking back, the raven-haired youth snarled, "Don't touch me! Don't you ever touch me!"

Kai was undeterred by the fire in the other's eyes, tightening his hold on Rei's upper arm. "Don't be ridiculous, Kon —"

The brunet glowered again, brushing Kai's hand away. "I said —"

What happened next seemed to pass all too quickly in Rei's eyes. One instant scathing words were flying out of his lips and the Kai's hands were tugging at him. The next thing he knew, a sharp spasm shot through his left biceps and he was jerked roughly to the ground, a cry that was not entirely his own sounding in his lips.

The breath left his lungs almost painfully, heavily. For a couple of seconds he tried to gasp, moving his jaw open and closed, just blinking repeatedly. Slowly, things were becoming clearer to him. He noted that there was a biting sting on his arm, where the throe originated, and he was definitely, pointedly aware of the heavy body pressing on his.

When he managed to get his bearings and get over the shock of having another body on top of him, he croaked out a chocked, "K-Kai –..."

"You idiot!" Kai hissed, as if he was completely unaware of the situation, shooting a scorching look at the brunet. "I told you to shut up!"

Rei blinked a couple of times, not fully comprehending.

Kai went on, "This is why I don't bother trying to trust anyone! Look at what happened! The mission had barely began and you're already injured!"

The brunet gazed up at him, trying to decide whether he should be flattered at the other's concern or dubious that the whole thing happened. The stinging ache in his arm halted his thought process. He turned his head to the left, and from the shreds of his dark sleeve he could see a nasty-looking gash oozing blood on his biceps.

For a moment, Rei was struck absolutely speechless. On one side he had managed to make himself into an easy shooting target, on the other, Kai had, more or less, saved him. He didn't know which was worse.

"I told you it wasn't safe," the Commander growled, much softer this time.

"And what do you care about my safety?" Rei retorted, though the anger wasn't as deep as he wanted it to be. Truthfully, he was glad. Maybe, he opined, maybe Kai wasn't as frigid as he had initially thought. Maybe he was just afraid. But what were the odds that he'd actually admit to that? The world would end all over again before that could happen.

Kai harrumphed, closing his eyes as if in thought. From his vantage point, Rei could clearly see the blue paint on his cheeks, some of which was beginning to fade due to the light layer or sweat on Kai's face. He'd wondered what those triangles meant. Perhaps, if he found the nerve, he would ask his leader one day. Up close, he noticed that Kai had high, prominent cheekbones, straight nose and finely chiselled lips and jaw; features that distinguished the upper class from the lower. Kai had a decidedly male scent, Rei decided, a mixture of sweat, of cinnamon and spices and maybe even a trace of danger.

His forced back those thoughts, concentrating instead on the twigs poking into his sides and back. Again, the pain in his arm returned, as did the awkwardness of the position. Flushing with embarrassment, his right hand splayed over the other's chest, he pointed out,"You're heavy, you know?"

Kai opened one garnet-coloured eye – his eyes had flecks of amber, Rei determined – and peeked at him, as if not comprehending. Then, catching the other's meaning, lifted himself off of him and into a crouching position. Rei followed him to sit up. His bit down a hiss, grabbing his injured arm.

Seeing the brunet chew on his lip to stifle the whimper was all Kai could do before, much to his internal consternation, he said, "Let me take a look at that."

Rei glared at him, shying away from the other's reaching hand. "No, I don't want your help. I'm fine on my own."

'It's just like him,' thought Kai, 'too proud to admit that he's hurt.' With a little threatening growl, he batted Rei's protective hand away, muttering, "Stop being so stubborn."

Sulkily, the brunet let him rip the remainder of his sleeve and prod the wound with a questioning finger. Rei muttered an oath to scrub himself clean when he got back to the base; Kai's hands were on his skin, dammit!

Kai inspected the gash closely, running his finger along the outside edge of it. The gash was maybe five inches long, though most of it could have been either blood or a scratch, and ran from the top of the shoulder to the middle of the arm. The skin surrounding the cut was beginning to turn a ghastly pale purplish colour, the blood clotting in the shallower areas. He leaned in closer, trying to see if he could spot the projectile.

"It's very interesting, isn't it?" Rei commented dryly. Kai ignored him for the most part.

Blood was still seeping from the gash, running in little streams down the brunet's arm. The contrast of bright crimson against the pale skin was startling; it was as if a pattern was formed between the red and the pallor of the flesh. Kai tore a piece of the tattered sleeve, soaked it with his own water and used the material to wipe off the excess blood. He felt Rei stiffen at the contact, but otherwise he remained motionless. Finished with cleaning the outside of the cut, he lightly touched the tip of the cloth inside the gash, and then pressed, hard. Rei turned his head the other way, keeping his eyes closed and jaws clenched together until Kai finished cleaning the wound.

When the ministrations stopped, Rei managed a smirk at the other, saying in a falsely teasing voice, "You're sadistic, aren't you?" Then, more seriously, he asked, "How does it look doc? Will I live?"

Kai grunted in response, digging in his pockets for the small utility knife he brought with him. "The wound isn't that deep, or bad, it will scar though. But I think there's something in there as well, a small projectile of some sorts." He finally found the knife, taking it out and flicking it open, he doused it with the remainder of his water.

Rei looked at Kai while he was doing this, an eyebrow raised questioningly. Feeling curious and slightly wary, he finally asked, "What are you going to do with that?"

"I'm going to try and take the thing out," the Commander replied, almost casually.

Rei blanched at the statement, his insides shrinking involuntarily. He decided then and there that he very much didn't like being shot at, especially if Kai was playing the good doctor. "Why's that?" He asked, in a tone that was higher than usual. "Is it poisonous?"

"No," Kai responded with a shrug, inching closer to Rei,"they wouldn't dare to use poison – no deaths, remember? But it could be one of those bullets that burrow into the muscle and cause internal bleeding. Stay still."

Rei obliged with a nod, fisting his hands in his clothes. Once again Kai's hands were on his arm; he stiffened in anticipation. The Commander pressed the still damp cloth just outside the gash, spreading it open a bit in order for him to see it better. The brunet hissed, but remained still. Carefully, tentatively he touched the tip of the blade into the severed flesh. Not liking what he did next, Kai pushed the tip of the knife deeper into the skin, feeling around with the metal tip.

"Ow! Fuck it!" Ground out Rei from between clenched teeth. The slow movement of the blade inside his flesh felt like a piece of himself was being slowly torn away. Kai drove the knife tip deeper, rotating it in a circular motion. The brunet felt oddly dizzy at the sensation, the pain so great it almost disappeared completely; in fact, the only thing that kept him upright at that moment was Kai's supporting hand on his arm and sheer pride. He wasn't going to show his unbreakable leader his weakness.

Kai quenched the sensation of his stomach wrapping around his spine. He could clearly see that Rei was struggling not to cry out and remain conscious. With the last bit of his resolve, he twisted the blade sharply, carving in, up and out. A strangled whimper left Rei's lips. Quickly, Kai pressed the cloth into the wound, the blood gushing again.

Seeing the ashen look on the other's face, he asked before he could stop himself, "Are you all right?"

Rei grinned through lips that were all too pale, the gesture seemed forced. "Of course I am, I wouldn't let a simple thing like that get to me. Besides, I told you I was fine." He shrugged off all other questions on the matter, tilting his head proudly to the side. As an afterthought, he asked, "What is it anyway?"

Kai opened his palm to reveal a metallic ball about a centimetre in diameter, a rippled ribbon running along its circumference. Rei's blood still stained the metal, a reminder of what had nearly happened. "It's as I've thought," replied Kai. "This bugger will burrow deep into the flesh. And see this little ring around it? Once it's deep enough, spikes about a millimetre in length will come out, tearing the organ tissue from the inside."

Rei winced at the mental picture, his stomach twisting at the concept.

"You're lucky, you know," said Kai. "If I haven't pulled you down in time, the case would have been much more serious."

The brunet's eyes widened in thought. He had been shot in the left arm, if he was hit just a fraction more to the right, the thing would have struck close to his heart... He swallowed painfully at the prospect, a small shiver running down his spine.

"Can they do that?" He asked. "That thing could seriously kill somebody."

Kai just shrugged, looking away. "The ball's not what would kill a person, internal bleeding would. That's not against the rules."

Rei didn't say anything to that. At that moment, for the first time since he heard of the mission, he finally comprehended how serious the situation was. People – his friends – could actually die. Somehow, that little fact hadn't dawned at him until that instant, when he was almost killed. He'd always known, just that it never felt more real than at that moment.

Rising slowly from his crouch, Kai pulled the brunet up as well. "Come on, let's head back to base."

Rei braced his feet into the ground, tugging the other way. "What do you mean?" He demanded with self-imposed venom in his voice. "We can't go back now!"

"We can and are," replied Kai, pulling Rei with more force. "I'm the commanding officer here and you will do as I say."

"Then I'll finish this task and come back later," the brunet fired back. "You said that you wouldn't accept failure, well neither will I."

"Kon," he growled dangerously, turning to glare at the ink-haired boy, "that wound of yours needs proper cleaning and stitching up; it could still get infected, especially in this air. I don't care if you're too stubborn to admit that you can't win this round, I will not jeopardize the entire mission on your account."

With a frustrated curse of his lips, Rei wrenched his arm away from the other's grasp and stalked past him. Feeling furious and confused at the same time, he sprang back into a fast run. He knew that Kai was watching him, and all he wanted at that point was to escape that hardened ruby gaze.

* * *

They had spent more time in those woods than he had initially thought. When they arrived back at the base, Rei was almost falling on his feet, his head swimming. By that time, most of the camp had already went to bed, only the night patrol and the more lively cadets about. Immediately at arrival, he had been sent to the medic (each team received one in case of injuries) and that was the last he had seen of Kai.

Now, at nearly three in the morning, he was out of bed, freshly showered and wandering amongst the tents in hopes of clearing his thoughts. He had not been able to sleep and he had a nagging suspicion that he would have one of _those_ dreams if he did. The base clearing was free from trees, so when he looked up, he could see the waxen moon smiling deceivingly down at him. The headquarters, being the largest of all the other tents, looming just a short way ahead of him. Kai would be sleeping behind that canvas.

He was ashamed to admit that he was in Kai's debt now, and that fact twisted painfully inside his gut. He didn't want to owe anything to Kai, knowing that even that much would be exploited and used against him, especially since his life was part of the obligation. Rei just wanted to make things clear between him and the Commander, to clarify that he would not do anything degrading or against his will.

Stopping outside of the entrance to the tent, Rei hesitated, nervous. What was he doing? It was an un-godly hour of the night and both he and Kai had been exhausted after that failed mission. The Commander would have his head for disrupting his sleep. Still, almost of their own volition, his hands closed over the edges of the canvas. Carefully, taking a last desperate breath and steeling his resolve, he drew the sheets apart and slithered in, like the brief flicker of light before the sheets drew together again.

It was dark inside, indicating that Kai was, indeed, asleep. On the tips of his feet, he crept silently in. He paused in thought again, chewing on his lip, deliberating whether he should actually finish this or go back to his own bed. Deciding that life was better than sudden death at the hands of his Commander, he turned around to leave. Just when he was about to escape back into the nightly world, a growled "light" sounded and the tent lit up.

Rei froze on his spot, startled by the officer's voice and at being discovered. In a flash, Kai was out of his bed and before him, brandishing a mysteriously hidden gun at him. 'So he even sleeps armed,' came Rei's fleeting thought. He noted that Kai still had on the dark pants and shirt he wore to the reconnaissance mission, though now it was fully unbuttoned and hanging loosely over broad shoulders, which meant that he had been very tired from the excursion. Rei felt himself slowly shrivelling at the thought. Kai looked absolutely wild with messy slate hair falling into his eyes. He had awoken a sleeping beast.

Shaking his head to get rid of the sleepiness, Kai came to realize just who was standing before him. "Kon?" He boomed threateningly.

Feeling all his usual haughtiness return, Rei parted his lips, batting his eyelashes coquettishly, and answered with a soft, "Kai?"

"What are you doing here?" He snarled, holding his weapon still.

Rei shrugged one shoulder in a display of nonchalance, grinning. "I'm not here to steal your gun, if that's what you're wondering," he replied. Then, taking a softer and more serious note, he said, "I came here to... thank... you."

It hurt him. It hurt him very much to stomp on his pride for this one moment and say that to Kai's face. He just hoped that he wouldn't end up regretting it later.

Kai had not been expecting that. He knew how much the other valued his honour, and to step down in front of him like that must have been very hard. In all honesty, he didn't know why he saved Rei, couldn't even understand how he did. He could barely even fathom as to why Rei came to him. Under scrutiny, he determined that the raven-haired youth must have been thinking about this all night; he was wearing his own sleeping clothes and his head was bed-mussed. Not knowing how to respond, he looked away.

The two stood like that for a while, trying to say something and not at the same time. Then, feeling like it was his turn to give in, Kai began,"I'm..." he almost chocked on the word from misuse "...sorry ... for what I said."

Rei's eyes grew large. He already knew, without it being clarified, that Kai was referring to that time in the training room. He admitted a soft smile to flutter along his lips before he turned it into a smirk. He punched the other lightly on the arm. "You probably just want me back as your sparring partner." Despite the tease in his voice, there was an odd sensation of being glad. Maybe the brief exchange had meant that a new plateau had been established between the two. Maybe they wouldn't have to fight any more. He would like that very much, he decided. Truthfully, he hated hating Kai.

Feeling a bit awkward, Kai searched for something to say. Internally, he chided himself; he never thought he'd be the one starting idle conversation with another human being. "You said my name," he stated after a time.

Rei shrugged in response."Yea, well, I can't exactly go around calling you 'Prince of Glass' forever, now can I?"

"Hn."

"You don't like to say much, do you." It was a statement rather than a question. The brunet narrowed his eyes at the other, scrutinizing his face. So he was right, there was something about Kai's appearance that was different. The blue triangles were gone, but there was something else...

Kai was jolted to realize that Rei was slowly inching closer to him, rising slightly on his tippy toes. Rei either ignored or was unaware of the way Kai seemed to stiffen when he was close enough for their bodies to meet. The Commander thought he had forgotten how to breathe; Rei's eyes were fastened steadily on his mouth. Then, a tentative, just barely trembling, dainty finger touched the corner of his lips, running it along the rounded flesh for a brief second, lingering slightly in the middle...

...Then the finger was removed.

Kai still couldn't fathom what had happened. Rei looked up at him, a shy smile struggling to show. "You had a piece of a leaf just right there and it was annoying me," he said airily.

Kai managed an intelligent-sounding, "Aa."

Rei brought his other hand up to touch his cheek, where the blue triangles used to be. He grinned at something infinitely funny.

As fast as he had come, the dark-haired boy turned on his heel and headed for the door. "Keep those things off," he said before disappearing outside, "you look much better without them."

And that was that. Rei was walking away and Kai was still standing rooted to the floor, trying to remember that air was good for his lungs. Fleetingly, he thought that the brunet always walked away with a shocking statement thrown over his shoulder, almost carelessly. It was as if he wanted to leave some things unexplained, just so that he could chase after him for an elaboration.

Shaking his head, Kai gave the 'dark' command, submerging the tent back into darkness. While he was lying in his bed, trying vigorously to fall back asleep, his hand strayed to his lips, as if having its own will. The sinking sensation he had been getting when he was around Rei returned, this time with more force.

(...Continua...)

* * *

_Smacks self in the face I had not realized how absolutely cheesy this story was. Forgive me. Having as much experience as I do now, I am very tempted to change some of the events. But I want to be reminded of my past mistakes later in life. _


	4. Letifera Aleae

**Warnings: **_To remind readers again, this story contains scenes of sexuality and sexual nature between two men. Cheese. Sap. Cheesy Sap lathered in more sappy Sap. Reader discretion advised.

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**Chapter IV: Letifera Aleae (Deadly Game)**

"Are you always this stubborn, or do you just have something against me?" Rei said, tilting his head to the side, a cocky smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. He gave the Commander a once-over, clucking his tongue against the inside of his cheek. "I thought you liked me? What gives?" He asked teasingly.

Kai spared him a dark glare from atop his nose, turning back to the dark woods head of him. "I've never said I liked you. And I don't have anything against you."

The raven-haired boy smirked at his leader's back, making a rude gesture with his free hand.

It was too early for the Illumination System to turn the lights on fully –– he gathered it was almost o' four hundred hours –– but the overhead 'sky' was brightening considerably. This time was his favourite, he decided. Everything was still consumed by that foreboding darkness, though it seemed less frightening. The hot haze that he came to associate with the forest's climate just barely skimmed the ground and reached almost to his midsection; the faint light from their camp and from the fake stars made it seem like a silvery overlay. The air felt fresher as well, free from long day's perspiration and the heat generators.

The week of their field training was almost up, with no real damages to either team. The final showdown, so to say, was expected at any moment. The two of them had been sent on night patrol, as they couldn't leave their camp un-monitored in case of nightly attacks and, if Rei dare think it, because none of the other guys dared to even glance at Kai for longer than a few seconds out of fright. ‛The pussies,' thought Rei with an inward smirk, sending another one in Kai's direction, ‛he's just a big, bad icicle. What's there to fear?'

He stepped over a sprawling plant and leaned against a tree, signalling Kai to follow him.

The brunet pouted for show when Kai remained unmoving, closing his eyes in a dismissive fashion. He sounded overly ostentatious, even to himself, when he said, "I'm deeply wounded, you know. I thought there was something special between us? Soul mates, maybe?"

Kai didn't bother to grant him another scolding glare, his lips twitching in an irritated manner. That's how things were between them now. Ever since their nightly exchange, he noted the drastic difference between them. The fire and passion were still there, as was the occasional bout of ire, but now they were accompanied by teases as well. Sure they'd been there before, but never in such a degree and nature. Now, Kai had to forcibly prevent himself from wondering about the underlying meanings in Rei's jests, from coming to disturbing conclusions, which were –– and he was aghast to admit it –– sexual in manner.

He was not much disturbed that it had actually occurred, as taboo as that was, but by his reaction to it. Kai found himself watching the lazy grin spread on the other's lips, how the words were formed with an almost languid precision and then left those lips with a smug undertone. He wanted nothing more than to just make that smirk go away. And there were times when he's find a smart, equally saucy retort rolling on his tongue. And he didn't like it one bit. It was too friendly, too familiar and he didn't want that.

He glowered at nothing, barking out sharply, "Don't fool around with things that could get you into deep shit."

Rei chuckled, then, his serious tone betraying his edginess, he asked, "Then why do you bother with me?" The question had actually been circulating around his mind for a while, much to his chagrin. He'd have to be both blind and deaf not to notice that Kai wasn't exactly a social butterfly (Blondie had explained to him what one of those were) and his opening up to Rei, though minimal to the bare bones, was a surprising occurrence.

"Because you won't let me do otherwise," Kai replied in his deathly serious voice, which didn't help to answer the brunet's question at all.

Rei hid a defeated sigh behind a well-placed roll of the eyes and disentangled himself from his support tree. It was important to never stay sill for more than ten minutes; the heat detectors would be able to trace their location and then they'd have a horde of soldiers descending on their asses. (He was quite annoyed and disappointed when he learned that the other team was not Tala's; he would have enjoyed seeing the redhead sputter and beg surrender at their feet, as unrealistic as that was.) He walked farther along the edge of the forest, Kai following in his wake.

Their camp was just beginning to stir with the oncoming morning; he could hear the clattering of pots and pans as the morning shift prepared to take their turn in the kitchens. Rei was glad to finally returning to base; tendrils of sleep were beginning to have an effect on him. Satisfied with the distance they'd travelled from their last location, the dark-haired boy settled himself against the bark of another tree, using a low-hanging branch as a makeshift seat.

"I hope the guys can handle it," he said out of the blue, his mind just a bit hazier with lack of sleep than he would have preferred.

"Hn?"

"The change, I mean," he explained on Kai's questionable grunt. "Some of them haven't grown up yet, I think. I'd hate to see their lives end like this, never knowing anything in life besides this. It's sad, really. Leaving their homes unwillingly, enduring this shit hole and then having to face Death. I don't suppose you realize how unpleasant that is."

Kai nodded, though the gestured seemed to go unnoticed by the other. He propped himself against the lower part of the branch, crossing his feet at the ankles. He was too tired to fight this one out, he reasoned, and maybe he even agreed with the brunet. "I thought you'd be furious with me," he said almost contemplatively, not fully registering having said it at all.

"Really?" Rei smirked in an humourlessly way, his eyelids drooping. "Heck, no. I'm tired, sleepy, and maybe even a little hungry –– but not furious. How very little faith you have in me." He toyed with the strings fastening his shirt collar, frowning. "But seriously, Kai, I can't exactly expect you to know any better. You've been bred into this, haven't you? You've been prepared, they haven't. It's not fair to them like this."

Kai remained silent for a long while, digesting everything Rei had said. It was true, really, and there was nothing he could say otherwise. It hurt, though, having someone else point it to him. "You're not blaming me for this?" He asked, the question having popped up all of a sudden.

Rei tilted his face to the side to glance at Kai from underneath his eyelashes before lowering his face to a more comfortable position. He smirked to himself in memory. "I was at the beginning. You could have been a nicer prick, you now? But not anymore –– you're in this as much as we are, after all. We all will die eventually anyway, why should I blame you if your cup of shit happens to be smaller than ours?" He grinned at another thought. "And besides, the only thing I can blame you of at the moment is talking too much –– oh I realize the irony, believe me –– and not letting me sleep."

Kai's noncommittal grunt was the only apology he offered. He glanced at Rei from the corner of his eyes. The brunet did, actually, seem exhausted. It looked very strange to him, to see Rei, who he'd come to associate with an endless supply of verve, to lack energy. No smirk was stretched on his lips, no reproach or teasing. Instead, his eyes were barely open, long eyelashes drawn together to tiny slits. We was slumped almost obscenely along the branch, one hand tangled in his hair, the other at the collar of his shirt; a leg dangled off the side of the branch while the other was propped up. He seemed so relaxed, nearly asleep. But, somehow, Kai knew that if he even so as breathed differently the brunet would spring into a defensive pose.

He grunted softly, flicking away sweat-dampened hair from his eyes. He needed rest, more then the allotted five hours, and he needed to get away from so much human contact. He wanted to get back to his secluded room back in the main section of the Academy, he wanted to get back to his usual training routine. But most of all, he wanted a shower; a long, hot shower to get rid of all the sweat and stench that for some reason gathered in the forest and had a tendency to pervade even through the bone marrow.

Kai shifted until he was fully upright. Sure enough, Rei raised his head slightly to look at him with one golden eye.

He shrugged off the other's question before he managed to voice it, beginning to walk to where voices were just starting to resound. "I thought you wanted to go to sleep," Kai offered as explanation.

One fine, black eyebrow shot up. "I thought we were supposed to be on patrol." Rei watched as Kai sidestepped a protruding root, making no motion to follow him.

"Hn. You forget that I'm the leader here. What I say is the law," Kai called over his shoulder.

Rei swung his legs from the branch, hurrying up to catch up with his Commander. He let a gingery grin spread over his lips. He winked at Kai, saying with as much sugar as he could muster, "You might be the law around here, but you're certainly no gentleman. Did no one tell you that you have to escort your date home once you're done?"

The brunet watched in satisfaction as the other's back became ramrod straight, his mouth curving around a scowl. Rei raised his chin just high enough to make it seem as a dismissal. Then he picked up his pace and headed for their base not too far ahead, making sure that his rope of hair swung enough to hit his rear with each step. It was a move he'd learned from the prostitutes on the corners of fifth and sixth streets way back in his thieving days. He'd seen what kind of stares the motion registered in the surrounding men. With amuse, he wondered of it had the same effect on Kai.

Rei knew he was being terribly crude with his not-very-subtle innuendoes. He also knew that he could get in serious shit if any of the other officers, or even cadets caught him at it. He didn't even know why Kai tolerated it. And it wasn't as if he'd meant it. He just wanted to pull on the Kai's strings, to see him reacting to each of his moves. And, maybe, he enjoyed seeing the impenetrable Kai all flustered from harmless banter. Nothing else could invoke the same response from him. And it was fun, deliciously so.

He smirked to himself, gloating at the fact that he had something over the other. With his next step, he made sure to jerk his hips just so, satisfied when his hair thumped against his rear in an almost methodical fashion.

* * *

"Holy Crackers!"

Kai stifled a growl, flinching when the shrill voice cracked over his headset, uncomfortably close to his ear. He had warned the rest of the guys to be very silent, unless stuck in an emergency situation, lest it got them killed. As expected, the final showdown down between their two teams came suddenly and unplanned. It was no time for jokes or recklessness. Besides which, he didn't even have enough time to rest after his nightly patrol with Kon before their camp was invaded.

He remembered the small explosion that rocked the ground just minutes after he'd entered his tent, then running out and barking out orders. Rei had been on the other side of the camp, directing a few of the younger cadets to the emergency supplies when a second explosion went off not too far away. Everything after that was a hazy blur. People scampering about, running in and out of various tents with weapons and med tools, others diving into the forest for an all-out attack.

It was nearly three hours after the initial explosion and things seemed more or less calm. Nearly half of his team was scattered throughout the forest, positioned in a sort of semi-arch in front of the enemy. The remainder of his team was back at base, tending to the wounded and preparing to fend off an attack from the rear if it came to that. Kai was lying on the ground, a plasma gun at his side and a hunting knife hidden in the folds of his clothes, a headset digging uncomfortably into the underside of his chin. He was filthy and tired (having not slept since the day before), and he was really in no mood for theatrics. He wanted this mission over as soon as possible, but the way things looked now, an end would be a long way coming

"What's wrong, Takao?"

Someone's – Max's, he noted– voice hissed over the line, cracking from static and maybe even worry. They all used the same radio frequency so it would be easier for him to communicate with his entire team.

"I've been hit." The blue-haired boy hissed back. It didn't surprise Kai much; gunfire could still be heard at periodic intervals, splitting the air too close for his liking. At each shot, he couldn't help but feel his lungs contort and release painfully while he waited for a report – if one was necessary.

"Where?" Asked Max, his anxiety now evident, even through the static.

"Right shoulder, just below the collarbone," Takao replied. Kai had to give him credit for not sounding panicky.

"Are you —"

"Is it critical?" Kai's sharp question over the intercom startled nearly everyone; nobody was expecting the Commander to be listening, much less bothering about such small things. Kai could clearly hear the younger boy fidgeting through his head set.

"N-no, Sir," Takao stuttered. "There's just so much blood and... Ow! It stings."

"Hn." Kai grunted in response. "What does it feel like?"

The Commander could practically see the other boy blanch, most likely holding on to his wound and having to fight off a nasty retort. ‛It feels like I've been shot, dammit!' Seemed to pass silently through the intercom. For a minute or two all he could hear was the ragged breathing of this team through the headset and the faraway gunshots.

"It...it," began Takao, looking for something appropriate to describe the sensation spreading through his chest and bones "... it's like... a wave of ice, like I'd taken a cold shower and it's gotten even under my skin."

Kai grunted again, removing a twig from where it dug into his side. The blue-haired boy could have been hit with the same bullet that he dug out of Rei's shoulder earlier that week. The possibility was small but the little chance that it was nagged at him. He gave himself a few seconds to deliberate what to do about it; he didn't have more than that. Takao didn't sound too affected, but that could have also been because of the nervousness or the tension had made him slightly giddy. It could also be that same weapon, and if it was, then they'd have to get the projectile out as soon as possible – before the blood and fragments of skin obscured it. But then the situation itself was not favourable; he didn't know if he could afford to spare one or two men, even for emergency. Should he sacrifice the structure of the current situation for the safety of his teammate? Or should he go on ahead while everything was still under control?

"Jenkins?" He called out over the line.

"S-sir?" Said man responded timidly; he didn't think that Kai noticed his existence.

"How far are you from Kinomiya's last reported location?" The Commander asked, oblivious to how edgy the other had sounded.

Fumbling noises could be heard over the intercom. "Ah... um... X, 3665 and Y, 7650 to south-southwest, Sir."

Kai harrumphed, thinking. That made it about ninety yards. "Tate? How far are you?"

"Not very far, Sir," Max replied, sounding surer of himself, which Kai attributed to his lineage. "I can make it in under five minutes, I think. What should I do?"

"Take him back to camp," Kai called out, pleased that something was finally going right. "Make sure he sees a medic immediately upon arrival."

"Will do." Max responded. "Should I call in reinforcements?"

The Commander thought about it for a moment. He'd had enough of waiting around on his belly like some coward. He'd take things on the offensive, Kai decided. "No, there won't be any need," he replied.

After a minute or two of waiting around, he heard the other's shuffling; the two had obviously met and were on their way. He waited for another little while, making last changes to the plan that was forming in his brain even as he thought about it. He could wait to battle it out to the last breathing man, or he could, somehow, attempt a sneak attack and take out the other team from the inside.

"Kon? What's your location?" He called out. Whatever his plan, he opined, Rei would be a vital part. Truthfully, the brunet was the fastest, most skilful of his entire team. Kai needed him, as must as he hated to admit it.

His thoughts were instantly brought to a halt when a warm hand was placed on the small of his back, a darkened face drawing to his own. Kai's muscles tensed under the hand, his breath lodged in his throat. Another hand reached up to press the small button on the strap of his headset, unclasping the apparatus. He felt rather than saw the air above him become heavier. His assailant's lips came close to the side of his face, the warm breath stirring the faint hairs on his nape.

"I'm right here" was whispered right into his ear; Kai suppressed the urge to shiver at the tickling sensation. Then realization hit his stomach like a bagful of bricks. Angry, he made a sharp motion to turn his head to the side, glaring at the perpetrator.

Rei just shrugged, crouching down beside Kai. "I thought you might want me near you." At Kai's lack of response (he was pointedly aware of his furious gaze) he smirked and set about recharging his own plasma rifle. "Admit it, I'm good and you need me."

Kai snorted in response, his ire dying down now that they were back on teasing terms. He shook himself mentally at this; he shouldn't be thinking that these harmless jests were a normal occurrence, a part of his daily life. Instead, he asked, "Why did you disable my comm-tool?"

Rei feigned a smirk, pressing the release button on his weapon. "What? Can't we even have a private conversation?" He glanced at Kai from the corner of his eye, knowing full well that he wasn't fooling the him. "So, I lied, no biggie. I just don't want the rest of the guys to hear, in case they'd get worried. Lord knows they're already scared shitless. Things aren't exactly peachy from this vantage point, are they?"

"Hn." Kai grunted in agreement. "Ten wounded, seven of them seriously. The others are too scared to move. They got us completely surrounded on the western side and from what I gather, they're swarming ahead of us as well."

"Why can't we just get rid of their leader? Eliminate him and the game's won, right?" Rei asked looking at him. It seemed to Kai as if his eyes glowed even in the darkness.

He shook his head. "Not easily done. As we are right now, there are more of them than there are of us, we'll be outnumbered in an all-out fight. And taking one down won't guarantee us a victory."

Rei fought off a grin. Just as he'd expected, Kai had intended on nothing but triumph. "They might have more manpower at the moment, and maybe even the advantage, but if we take down their leader they'll crumble and burn. A team is nothing without a leader."

Kai could feel Rei's eyes on him even as he fathomed it over. It seemed to him that, maybe, there had been a praise behind those words. It could work, he thought, if they played on the other team's strings correctly, they could still pull off a victory.

"‛sides," Rei added, looking away into the darkness of the forest, "what else would you suggest. Waiting things out?"

"Hn," Kai grunted in agreement. "Kon, you ——"

"Rei," the brunet interrupted him.

The two-toned youth looked at him questioningly.

"My name is Rei," he supplied helpfully. It was important, for some inexplicable reason, that Kai referred to him by his given name. "I thought you would have learned at least that much about me after all this while. And it's the least you could do after I come to save your ass like this."

"Rei." Kai rolled the name on his tongue, feeling unnecessarily awkward at having to say it aloud. "I want you to head for their Commander while I distract them."

The brunet frowned. "Why do you get to act as a decoy? You're not telling me you'd rather that I go unscathed and have to fend them all off yourself. Is that concern I sense there?" Despite his joking tone, Rei was quite serious. Kai had openly volunteered to take on the hardest part himself, which meant two things, neither of which he favoured. One was that Kai decided to be a self-righteous kamikaze; the other that was that he'd sacrifice the mission on his account.

Kai ignored the tease, saying gruffly, "Because you're the fastest of the two of us and more agile. You'll have less trouble getting to their leader."

Rei tilted his face to the side in a coy gesture, gazing at Kai with the same fake-ly sugary simper. "Why you flatter, you. That's the first compliment you've given me!"

His Commander grumbled something darkly to himself. Rei could clearly see the struggle not to strangle him twisting on the other's face, and he damn well enjoyed it. He was about to say something else –– along the lines of how sweet Kai was –– when a shot and a muffled scream sounded through the air. The brunet swore under his breath, angry at himself for letting personal feelings get in the way of the mission.

He looked at Kai with dark, narrowed eyes. "How will I know which one's the leader?"

Kai shrugged, recharging his gun just in case, even though it was still full. "He'll be the one giving all the orders."

Rei bit back a sharp retort, asking instead,"What about the others? Should we tell them or go ahead with it?"

At this, Kai picked up his discarded headset, donning it on but not fitting the straps. He tapped the speaker with his index finger, hearing the initial static of the comm-system booting up. "You are all to remain in position," he said over the open line, not waiting to hear if the others had acknowledged his presence. "No matter what happens –– whether you hear screams or gunfire –– you are to remain where you are. Understood?"

Small confirmations could be heard over the line even as Kai dropped the headset back to the ground. Finishing making the final adjustments to his plasma gun, the Commander unsheathed the hunting knife that was concealed until that point. He looked up at Rei, letting his eyes roam over the other's face as if for the last time. "Here," he handed the knife to the brunet.

Rei took the weapon, hiding it within his clothes as Kai had. "I'll treasure it always," he said lightly, hoping to get rid of the tension that seemed to suddenly rear its ugly head. From the time he was a small kid on the streets he didn't like tense situations, they always made him feel useless.

"You better," Kai said quietly, trying to relieve some of the jitters twisting at his stomach. "That's my favourite hunting knife." He couldn't very well say ‛be careful' or ‛make sure you bring yourself along with it,' could he? That would be completely uncharacteristic of him.

The raven-haired youth forced a smirk at the attempted joke, feeling better already; the knife was an oddly soothing weight against his side. "I feel so special," he said with a little chuckle.

Returning to fight-mode, Kai sprang into a half-crouch, pressing against the back of a tree. He motioned Rei closer. The brunet squatted at his side, looking ahead into the forest and carefully observing Kai at the same time.

"You'll follow closer behind me until their front lines," the Commander was saying, absently digging in his pocket for something. "Then we'll separate. You'll lie in wait until I give you the signal – you'll know once you hear it –, which will give you the go ahead. From then on, you'll have approximately ten minutes to find and isolate their leader. Here, take this," he said, finally fishing out what he was searching for.

Rei held out his hand. A small, blue and white capsule was dropped into his palm. He inspected it closer, noting the tiny writing printed on the side. "What is it?" He asked.

"It's a minor explosive," Kai replied, closing Rei's still outstretched hand. The brunet felt a sort of thrill of electricity pass through him, originating from where their skin met. The two-toned youth obviously had not felt the same sensation because he was looking back into the woods again, his brows furrowed in concentration. "If you find yourself in a compromising situation, I want you to use it. Press on its sides lightly and then throw it as far away from yourself as possible. It's not strong enough to be lethal, but it'll create a flash that'll give enough a distraction for you to get away.

"If I hear nothing from your side of things after ten minutes, I'll assume that you've been either shot, knocked out or captured," he continued in his calculating voice; Rei had to suppress a shiver at the frost Kai seemed to radiate. "I'll manage to plant a couple of these capsules all over the place and when the time's up, I'll set them off. That'll be plenty enough opportunity for you to get out. If you can escape, head straight for base to re-group and re-strategise."

Rei snorted. "You sure have so little confidence in me." That made the brunet's anger swell up again. Did Kai really think him incapable of taking care of himself? He might not have been an expert at these things, but he'd rather suffer a thousand humiliations than to give up – or fail. And he owed that much to Kai, at least. On a lighter note, he added, "That sounds like an elaborate plan. For how long exactly have you been planning this?"

Kai shrugged in answer and dismissal. "It doesn't matter now. Ready?" He gave a small grunt at Rei's nod and bolted around the tree before the dark-haired youth could get a word edge-wise.

He ran fast, ducking left and right, springing into a crouch and jumping over logs, knowing instinctually that Rei was just a step behind him, if not slightly ahead. What he said was true, the brunet really was incredibly fast. That first night during the reconnaissance mission he caught a glimpse of him moving through the trees by accident. It lasted less than a second, streaking alabaster and amber in-between the dark, obscuring trees. He'd thought it was the trick of the eyes, as such things tended to happen after a while of being surrounded by the same environment, but then his gut clenched and he knew that it was Rei.

He just hoped that that speed was enough to get him through this unscathed. Kai hated it, but being with these people had changed him. Wanted or not, they were slowly gaining his trust and concern. Maybe they were becoming like a family to him. Whatever it was, he was sure it would hurt like hell if one of them got seriously hurt.

A streak passed by him and then disappeared ahead into the trees. He thought he caught a wisp of ebony hair ghosting over his cheek. He narrowed his eyes and sped up.

Rei squatted behind a mangled tree, waiting for his captain to approach. He allowed himself a second's reprise to catch his breath before Kai joined him. The Commander looked at him long and hard, his eyes like raw rubies in the murkiness. It passed as a silent agreement between them that no more words should be said from this point on. Rei cocked his head slightly to the side, deliberating before giving a small nod. Kai responded with a similar gesture and rose up slightly to move ahead.

The younger man caught his hand before he could move forward, however. Kai looked down at him. Rei tugged on his sleeve, pulling the larger hand toward him so it was pressed against his side, where the knife was concealed. ‛I'll bring it back,' he seemed to say with the token, ‛so you better be here to get it.'

With another curt nod, Kai set off again. Rei did not dare to look after him, not wanting to catch unwanted attention. His insides seemed to shrink while he waited for the other's signal. He felt almost as if time had decided to slow down, simply because at that moment it didn't like him. It felt like a sensory overload. Every sound was amplified until it was almost too painful to listen, even to his own breathing. His eyes darted every-which-way, looking for anything that did not belong but finding nothing.

The wait was excruciating. His muscles tightened and released, pumped with nervous anticipation. He thought he might as well choke on his own breath and be spared having to just sit there and do nothing. Then, like from behind closed eyelids or a dream, he heard it: the signal. It was no more than a whisper, though it sounded awfully loud to his straining ears; it was like one of those chirping sounds that artificial birds made. He remembered it from that evening in the training room with Kai. It had to be the signal – there were no living creatures in this forest, after all.

Sucking in a deep breath, he leaped up and onto a low tree branch, skidding on the growing moss and sheer momentum. He jumped from one branch and onto the next, half-gliding. From a short distance ahead, he heard yells and gunfire. Rei grinned to himself, thinking that it was unfair of Kai to be having all the fun while he had been stuck with all the waiting. At least that meant that their plan had gone without a hitch for the time being.

Light was coming ahead of him. He slowed down, creeping along the current branch, pressing himself flat against it when the trees parted to a clearing. He was rather high up, which granted him a good overlooking view of the entire situation. Rei felt his breath hitch up. The other team built a forte in the middle of the forest. ‛So that's how they managed to surround us and keep it up for such a long while without re-supplying,' he opined. Several trees were uprooted, lying haphazardly on the ground. Small tents were set up, the main one situated between a couple of smaller ones. It would be tough getting into, he decided. Rei noticed that many of the small people below were scurrying about from tent to tent. He smirked again, mentally thanking Kai for the opportunity.

He waited for a second longer, assessing the best opening. Then, as if a gun unlocking mechanism went off inside his head, Rei jumped down from his perch on the branch, landing noiselessly on the ground below. He ducked behind a couple of stacked crates, taking the moment to wipe off the sweat on his nape and to regain his equilibrium. When a couple of nameless cadets passed by his hiding spot, he sprang from position, following them stealthily. They did not differ much from him; both tall, lanky and dressed in dark clothes. Still, he did not want to risk just walking along side of them.

Rei sidestepped into the shadow of two tents, running lithely along the side of one. He could see the main tent just a slight ways ahead. Crouching down in front of broad-leafed plant, he observed the situation. There were several armed men walking about, a couple others guarding the entrance and the Commander inside. Dully he noted that things were systemized differently in this camp – apparently, the leader and most of the infantry were left at base, as opposed to all hands in combat. Things weren't in his favour; he'd have to bypass them all before making a break for their leader and by that time the entire forte would have been alerted to his presence. While he didn't doubt that he could take on a dozen or so men by himself, an entire camp was too much.

He chewed on his lip, a nervous habit he picked up from Max, and thought about it. There really was only one way out of this mess, he reasoned. Hurriedly, Rei took out the small capsule that Kai gave him. He didn't allow himself a single moment more to ponder on it and squeezed the little instrument in a fist that was clammy. There was a _whirr _and_ click_. Feeling as if things were happening too fast for his liking, Rei drew his arm back and threw the mini bomb as far away from the main tent as possible.

The brunet had less than a second to regroup his focus when the explosion went off. Instantly, the ground underneath his feet shook, a painfully pale light coming from the source of the blast. Not even thinking, he darted from his hiding place and to the main tent. People were frantically scurrying all around him, shouting and screaming obscenities at each other and at the commotion. Rei's hands were curled around the flaps of canvas when a second explosion rocked the earth, followed closely by another. Startled, he whirled around to look for the origin of the disruption. His mind whirred frantically; things weren't supposed to go like this, what went wrong? Did someone else manage to sneak into the enemy camp? Was it another confrontation? Was Kai all right?

He had just a fraction of a second to process all these thoughts when a head popped timidly from the tent's entrance. Rei was surprised to note that this man was young, only a couple of years older than him, with mousy hair and pale brown eyes. He seemed positively green with inexperience. ‛Is this what they send to fight in the war?' Came the disgruntled thought.

Despite the young face, the Commander barked out sharply, "What's all the commotion?" He reached for the gun secured at his waistband.

Taking the opportunity, Rei stepped up to the older man, forcing on a worried expression. "We're under a surprise attack, Sir. Come inside where you can be safe."

The Commander looked at him intently, narrowing his eyes as if in recognition, but followed Rei inside the tent nonetheless. Outside, more small explosions went off, trailed by yells for help and more ammunition. The mousy-haired leader went over to his large desk, where a map similar to Kai's lay. His brows furrowed together as he studied the charts and reports on his desk.

"How many of them are operating the attack, private...?" He asked, bending over a sheaf of records.

"Kon, Sir," Rei supplied, coming closer to the man. "I suspect there's no more than two of them, Sir."

"Two?" He sounded almost affronted, giving the brunet a scathing look. Rei came to stand behind him, looking over his shoulder at the records. "Who's their Commander?"

"Kai," the ebony-haired boy breathed out, almost tenderly, smirking inwardly when he saw the faint hairs stand up on the Commander's neck, "Hiwatari Kai, Sir."

The older man blanched, an almost imperceptible shudder passing through him. Kai was practically a legend on the Academy campus. To fight against him was every cadet's late night fantasy and worst fear. From what he'd heard, Kai wasn't even human. He suppressed a tired sigh.

"That's just fucking great!" He shook his head. "No matter. These reports read that his side has more casualties than us. If we manage to hold off this attack... I'm guessing he sent his best people over, and if we capture them then we'll have a high advantage over him. Private, relate these orders t——"

"Captain?" The softly spoken question interrupted his planning.

"What?" He growled out.

Just then, the cold barrel of a plasma gun was pressed against the blond man's right temple. He froze, a cold shiver passing through his body. A sudden feeling of terror overcame him, he closed his eyes; a plasma shot that close to the body, even if set to the lowest level, was lethal.

Rei felt the Commander stiffen and suck in a sharp breath. He grinned to himself, like a predator that had captured his prey. He turned off the gun's locking mechanism. The brunet felt more than saw the man's Adam's apple rise up. He pulled back the trigger device just slightly, enough for the pieces of the metal to scrape against each other. The Commander went completely still, even the beads of sweat seemed to pause.

"Bang! Bang!" Rei whispered darkly into the Commander's other ear.

The man went totally limp, slumping against the brunet's front. Rei deposited the man onto the floor beside the desk, noting with a little cringe the dark stain that formed on crotch of the Commander's trousers. Quickly, he went over to the comm module and flipped over a couple of the switches. He picked up one of the discarded headsets near the station.

"Attention all!" Rei called out into the speaker, sounding fierce. "We have your leader captured and your fort surrounded on all sides. There are a dozen of our men stationed in various places all over this camp. Also, several medium power explosives have been set up — " ‛So what if that was a slight exaggeration, they didn't know that, right?' He added mentally "— If you want to come out of this situation with as little casualties as possible, I suggest your surrender."

Everything outside seemed to suddenly stop. No more explosions, no more shouts. Just outside the tent, he heard the sounds of something heavy and metallic thud on the hard earth. He didn't have to turn around to look when the heavy canvas was lifted behind him and a person stepped in, he already knew who it was.

"I'm glad you decided to show up, Kai," He said with a little lilt in his voice, cocking his head to the side but still not facing the other.

Kai, because it was, indeed, him, grunted in response, stepping further into the darkness of the tent. He had been alarmed when he heard the first explosion, thinking that Rei had encountered a possibly threatening situation. He had acted on instinct, too brashly, he thought.

"Here," Rei said, finally turning around. He flashed Kai an easy grin and threw something at him. The object hit the Kai's chest and landed with a soft _thud_ on the ground. The other youth bent to pick it up, eyebrows rising once he identified what it was. He sent a questioning glower Rei's way. The brunet just shrugged nonchalantly. "It's your favourite, isn't it?"

Kai muttered a soft ‛yes' and hid the hunting knife back amongst the folds of his clothes. Through the layers of cloth, he could feel Rei's heat lingering on the metal. He got it back after all.

* * *

He leaned in against the dull metallic railing, letting the artificial breeze blow the slate-coloured locks out of his eyes. This, Kai thought, was his most favourite place in the entire world. After their release from the exercise field, both teams were hailed for their efforts and were given a week off of training duty, after which they'd be moved closer to the front lines. While the rest of his team had decided on a well-deserved rest and a party at one of the local pubs, Kai decided to come here, out of the protective dome of the Academy and to one of the viewing platforms.

He remembered reading from somewhere that he stood on what used to be the ruins of an ancient capital city; it had been renamed New Kioto after the reconstruction of the old island. Several long viewing platforms had been built from the city's port and extended nearly ten miles into the ocean. These edifices were mostly constructed under the water, sound and shatterproof glass surrounding the structures on three sides. It was the only place in the world where real-life fish could still be found. If Kai closed his eyes and all other senses besides sound, he could almost make himself believe that he was in an underwater world.

It was still morning and only a few other visitors were scattered about. The lights on the metal bar that connected the heavy sheets of glass were dimmed to create an illusion of hazy dusk. The water seemed almost blue, just faintly so because of the ash-black sky overhead. Even still, everything appeared decidedly ethereal. In this place, Kai felt as if he had been transported back through time, to the ancient worlds he had studied. If he extended his hand over the railing and pressed it against the glass, he knew from the experience, he would feel the water flow, pulsate as if having a life of its own. Being here, Kai forgot, even if for a brief moment, about everything but this gentle surge, like that of time.

When he was younger, he often came to this place to free his mind whenever he found his thoughts to be muddled.

Kai ignored the weight that was added next to him on the railing. He resisted an urge to growl and sent a menacing glare into the expanse of water. This was supposed to be one of his safe-havens, a place where he could be alone, meaning that he did not want or appreciate anyone invading that space.

"Shouldn't you be with your friends, Kon?" He asked, biting back a waspish curse.

"Rei." Said youth supplied automatically.

"Rei."

The brunet shrugged and sent a light grin his way. "I was just taking a stroll around the place and then I saw you walking about. And so I thought to myself, why, he seems as if he knows his way around, maybe I can mooch off a free tour from him." He saw Kai's lips part as if preparing a sharp retort. With a little incline of his head, he added, "and for your information, you weren't that difficult to track down."

Kai didn't say anything in response, leaning more heavily onto the rail. He didn't want to have another fight with Rei, not so soon in any case.

"I never figured you to be the contemplative type," was said softly after a while. Kai hid his surprise when he realized that there was no tease in that voice.

"Why can't I be?" He retorted, keeping his voice quiet so they wouldn't attract the attention of other visitors, as if any sort of confrontation would mean disturbing the sanctity of this place.

Rei shrugged nonchalantly, saying, "I never said you weren't, just that you did not seem that way to me."

"Hn."

Kai may not have seemed it, but he was a strong devotee of the ancient arts. Growing up, he had many books –– digitalized and genuine –– on classical literature. Once, he had sneaked down to his grandfather's library and read the entire Ulysses, though it took him several nightly trips to finish the whole tome. He was fascinated with the ancient world, the abandon, the politics and simplicity. Maybe he even envied the characters in those books.

"I mean," Rei continued over the stretch of silence, "I don't know, you just seem so very harsh, like you are trying to freeze from the inside out. Or like you're trying to dislodge that stick from up your ass," he added with a little rueful grin. "I didn't think you'd bother with such frivolous things. What's the use for art and literature in this world? To you, especially?"

Kai just peered deeper into the almost-blue of the water beyond the glass. If he stared hard enough, maybe he could see a fish swim by.

Rei scrutinized him from the corner of his eye. All his first impressions of Kai had crumbled and fell before he had even realized it. Initially, he thought his Commander was cold-hearted, but he came to realize that that was not the case. Kai went out of his way to save him back in that forest. He took the time to appreciate rare beauty such as this observational platform. And Rei knew that somewhere inside, Kai cared about every member of his team as if their were his own siblings.

Looking at him now, the brunet could almost imagine Kai as a lonely little boy trying to escape the harsh reality. And, perhaps, that's what he still was.

He propped one elbow up on the railing, cupping his cheek while still maintaining his barely subtle gaze on Kai. With a little start he realized that his Commander was actually quite handsome. Dark eyes and pale skin. If only his hard glare didn't shrivel the air, if only his harsh words didn't have the force to crush, if only he didn't shrink away from human touch.

Rei allowed a small smile to tug on his lips. "Let me tell you a story," he said, trailing the finger of his free hand along the glass' surface.

Kai glanced at his companion as if trying to decide if he was insane or not. "Aren't we a little bit too old for such things?"

The brunet ignored him, beginning his tale. "Once there lived a... man." He fumbled with the last word, as if he wasn't sure how to address the protagonist. "This man, since he was young, all he knew was running. Always, he ran and ran and ran. He didn't know why he was running, or from what, but it was very important to keep on gong. He never paused, never looked back, and he never stopped, not even when his feet had swollen up with blisters and his every breath felt like it was his last.

"One day, as he was running through a city, he realized that he had been there before, that it had been his home once." From the brief glance he allowed himself, Kai noticed that Rei's face was closed off, devoid of emotion. The brunet went on, "He looked at the desolate streets, the dilapidated buildings and the fleshless forms on the ground that were once his friends. And it struck him very odd that he should keep on running while all his friends, everything that he had ever known and loved was dying. It was then that he realized what he was running from." Rei paused for dramatic effect, turning to look at Kai with eyes that were more or less lifeless. "Do you want to know what it was?"

"Hn." Kai's noncommittal response was ambiguous in nature, not having a clear distinction between negative and positive. And that's exactly how he wanted to sound.

"It was death," Rei answered without really caring whether Kai wished to hear or not. "You see, he didn't want it to happen to him or to those he cared about. He realized that the world was doomed, as was he. He knew that the fate of his hometown would be shared by others over the span of time, but he had never seen it come so close to him and it was truly terrifying. And he wanted to live, he wanted to be with those he loved, even when he knew that they would perish someday, too. But he was very tired, and everyone, he discovered, that he loved was gone. And you know what he did?" Rei turned to him again, a sort of lost smile stretched on his lips. "Then and there, on a street littered with human corpses and with the ruins of his home at his feet, he stopped and looked behind him. And he smiled because he saw his future there..." he let his voice trail over and slowly disappear.

Kai managed to swallow past the lump that somehow managed to lodge in his throat –– why, he had not a single clue. "That's a lame story," he snorted, looking away.

Rei shook his head as if trying to get rid of a bad thought. Cocking his head to the side, he retorted,"Well I skipped a couple of parts of course! I didn't think that you'd would want to hear about the hero of the story finding the love of his life, realizing only too late that it would end in tragedy. And he had to go through a long ordeal about finding his family again and after that, he had to save the world from some nameless force."

Kai dismissed the latter as complete nonsense."And?" He asked after a while.

Rei quirked an eyebrow at this. "What?"

The Commander rolled his eyes, as if expecting it to be a universal question. "Did it catch up to him?"

The cadet thought about it for a moment, then shrugged with a little grin. "Maybe, maybe not. I don't know, it hasn't been written yet."

Kai felt a victorious smirk tug on his lips. "If it hasn't been written yet then how do you know what happens in it?"

Aware of the Kai's ploy, Rei decided to play along. "I don't have to have read the story to know how it goes!" He exclaimed, bringing his hands in front of him in a defensive fashion.

Kai snorted something incomprehensible and turned to lean backwards against the railing. "Meaning that you just made it up," he said, the little smirk still planted firmly on his lips.

Rei looked nearly scandalized. "No I didn't!" He exclaimed, sounding affronted. "It's a real story, I swear! It happened to a friend of a friend of mine."

"Hn." Kai sounded unfazed, closing his eyes to hide his amusement. "Don't try to weasel your way out of it, Rei." He had a little struggle deciding what to address the other –– should he purposely ruffle the brunet's feathers by sticking to the formal title, or should he submit and refer to him as only "Rei"?

The brunet's only reply was to make a crass gesture with his hand. Kai was fighting a losing battle against a wide, triumphant grin. Rei had lost this small fight, which was a large plus in Kai's opinion. Though, if he thought about it, something in the dark-haired youth's story was unsettling, he just couldn't pinpoint what it was. When he was telling it, Rei seemed almost lost, like he'd forgotten which was the right path so he was stumbling and blindly groping to find his way back. Kai shrugged off a nagging thought that told him that Rei was the man in the story. Thinking like that would do no good to him. Rei, after all, was just a no body with no future, like himself. He had no room to make bonds, knowing that they would be broken at some point.

"What happed to the one he loved?" Kai asked to combat the returning silence, during which both had fallen deathly still.

"Hmm?" Rei looked up at him, barely comprehending. "He never told his love, but sat like saddened Patience upon the pedestal and let his invisible tears roll over frozen cheeks. He fell in love with a loveless fool, you see." 1

"You're being overly melodramatic about it," snorted Kai.

Rei sent him a haughty grin. Saying sarcastically, "You're very observant, aren't you? Your deducing skills amaze me."

Kai inclined his head to the side as if in acknowledgement. Then another question popped into his mind."...How would you know what happened with his lover if it was never written down? For all you know, he might have been loved in return and suffered in silence."

Rei shrugged, feigning the illusion of nonchalance. "Call it intuition of somebody who's rocked in the same boat."

Kai let the implication die down, thinking that it was none of his business to meddle in Rei's personal life. Besides, it's not as if his input mattered to the other. Instead, he said to change the topic, "After the week is up a transport will come to take all of you to Delhi."

The dark-haired youth glanced at him from under his bangs. He knew it would come up sooner or later, just that he did not anticipate it so soon. "You mean to tell me you're not coming?" He asked seriously.

Kai looked at the dark water across from him, keeping his gaze otherwise neutral. "Voltaire wants me to stay here."

Rei looked up at this. It was the first time he heard Kai refer to his grandfather. He had referred to the man in such a formal way. Rei thought there would be more relation between the two. "His heir?"

"Hn." The other grunted in response.

A bile-tasting knot rose to Rei's throat. He forced his gaze down to the grated walkway. "Don't tell me your grandfather has you tied so tightly against his little finger that you can't even move of your own free will." Kai didn't say anything to defend himself. "I can't believe you would abandon your team just like that, just because some old bastard said so. What bullshit. Have you ever thought that some people might actually depend on you to pull through? No, I don't think you ever did."

Kai chose not to comment, feeling his own ire raise up. He wanted, more than anybody, to be among the front lines. He was prepared for it. But Voltaire was a difficult thorn in his side, and one not easily removed.

Wanting to change the stale atmosphere that seemed to arise at the mention of his grandfather, he asked, "How did you get inside the viewing platform? The admission fee is more than a private's pay."

Glad for the change of topic, Rei felt his stomach twist, as if it was trying to feed on itself. He was hoping that Kai wouldn't ask that question. A shiver of something akin to unadulterated fear spread along his spine, though he prevented it from showing on the exterior. He wasn't afraid of Kai, but he was afraid of the gun he knew Kai always hid on his person.

He swallowed past the dry lump that formed in his throat, backing away just ever so subtly. "You're right, I didn't have enough for an admittance." Which was the truth; after all, the pay of a cadet of his stature was less than a hundred credits, which was barely enough for a decent meal at the pub and certainly wasn't enough for the hefty thousand credits to get inside the viewing platform.

Kai narrowed his eyes at this, noticing that a cold sweat had broke out on the other's forehead, and that Rei was trying to surreptitiously creep away. "How did you get the right amount?" He asked, though he had a sneaky suspicion that he already knew.

"I borrowed some," Rei replied with a shrug, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's not like the guy needed it."

With a muttered curse, Kai held out his hand to the other. "Give it back," he growled darkly.

Rei blinked at him endearingly, sticking out his bottom lips in an imitation of a pout. "What do you mean?" He asked in mock innocence, inching further away all the while.

Kai noticed this, straightening up and taking a step closer in retaliation. "My purse," he ground out, extending his hand farther. "Give it back."

Clicking his tongue, the brunet backed away even more, feeling playfulness set in again. Kai had such a cold demeanour; was it really his fault if it was fun to see it destroyed because of harmless banter? "Why should I ?" he asked with a lazy drawl. "You don't need so many credits anyway. Think of it as sharing."

"Kon." Kai had said the name as if it was a threat, which it was, actually.

Rei grinned at him and produced the wallet from somewhere amongst his clothing. "How about we play a game for it?" He offered. "If you can catch me, I'll give it back to you. If you don't... Well, I get to keep everything that's inside and spend it on whatever I wish. Deal?"

Before Kai managed to utter a protest, Rei pivoted around and set off for the deeper end of the viewing platform. Kai cursed profoundly under his breath, darting after his renegade companion. Why did Rei always shift things to a game level?

"I'll get you, Kon!" Kai shouted after the brunet, unable to suppress his ire.

"I'll never be yours!" was hollered in return, accented with rich, melodious laughter.

Kai glared at Rei's rapidly shrinking form and sped up. He didn't have to play along with Kon's games, of course; he had more than enough money, the few thousand that were in his wallet were nothing in comparison to the Hiwatari fortune. But, somehow, he knew that losing even this much to Rei would mean losing more than just. It wasn't about wanting to have something over the other, it meant that his pride and ego was being stepped on. Although he wasn't conceited, he didn't like to be humiliated either, especially by like likes of someone like Rei.

So, he determined with a darkening glare, he would not let Kon defeat him. Out of sheer will, Kai forced himself to become faster. The air that filled his lungs was almost painful, throbbing dully in his side. He ignored it as well as the people that were frantically dodging away from him. His cheeks stung and bones all but creaked with exertion. It felt exhilarating. On an offhand note, he wondered whether this was the reason Rei seemed to enjoy speed so much.

A few paces ahead of him was Rei, though he wasn't laughing anymore. Kai didn't allow himself to count it as a victory yet. Mustering up all the impetus he could, he accelerated –– if that was possible –– until he was almost neck-to-neck with Rei. He thrust his left arm out, which caught the brunet on the side. Not expecting the move, the younger of the two stumbled a bit but did not stop. Narrowing his gaze at Kai's back, he was about to drive a low kick when Kai swivelled around suddenly and grabbed his upper arm roughly, stopping his progress.

"Ow!" Rei exclaimed, though it didn't register with either of them.

Kai growled profanities under his breath, steering his less than willing companion into one of the maintenance compartments that were situated along the stretch of the platform. Keeping his vice grip on Rei's arm, Kai nearly crushed the man against the wall, blocking the way out with his body.

"Relax, relax!" The brunet said breathlessly with a little laugh. He had not felt so exalted in years. "You know I was only playing."

Kai's glower was scathing enough to make anyone else beg for mercy. Rei, however, just grinned cockily at him. For some reason, this perturbed him. Why wasn't Kon cringing away from him? As if expecting some devious ruse to be behind the brunet's unfazed appearance, Kai peered closer at him. All he saw were cheeks flushed a pale pink from excitement and exertion, jet-black hair falling into eyes that didn't have a particular colour up close, a perky nose and lush, delicate lips. He'd never really looked at him before, Kai realised, or at least he never saw him like this.

He noted that Rei's lips were moving, but he couldn't hear what was being said. Suddenly, he felt very tired, all energy drained from his limbs. He slumped against Rei's slighter form, oblivious to how the other stiffened at the contact.

"You. Are. Mine." He growled breathlessly into the brunet's ear; it was a strange shape, small and pointed just slightly at the tip.

Rei suppressed a shiver at the warmth of the other's breath on the sensitive lobe. He valiantly tried to ignore how Kai's body was pressed almost uncomfortably against his own, how the wall and the man's strong arms trapped him. The several layers of clothing didn't seem to be enough for him, because he could clearly feel the definition of every muscle along Kai's chest. The heat that was creeping along his skin was very unsettling. The faint hairs on his nape were stirred again when Kai seemed to sigh softly. His insides froze when he realized that Kai's lips were hovering along his jaw, barely touching.

Swallowing, he turned his head to look at his Commander, a curse or a retort –– he couldn't decide on one –– poised on the tip of his tongue. But when he caught sight of Kai's face, nothing could come out. Maybe it was the garnet gaze, which had become a darker, richer shade, or the complete lack of the usual coolness, the brunet could do nothing.

"Rei," was breathed softly, like a dream, before lips that he did not dare to look at touched his own.

The contact was less than a whisper against flesh, but even that much was enough to send Rei's mind awhirl with sensation. He panicked. He didn't know what to do, what he wanted to do. The touch was warm and delicious but wrong at the same time. Should he push away? Did he want to? With a sinking feeling in his gut Rei realized that he didn't, that he'd wanted this for a long while. And with that came disgust –– at himself for thinking such thoughts, at Kai for complying with them and for making it better than he could imagine, and at the world just because at the moment he hated everything about it.

Somehow, his heart leaping to his throat and plunging back down to the soles of his feet, Rei managed to find it in himself to push at Kai's chest. The Commander seemed dazed, as if he didn't realize what he had just done.

Rei didn't wait for comprehension to dawn on him before ducking under one of Kai's arms and escaping into the main walkway, saying a harried, "Takao'll kill me for being late –– I promised him that I'd go with him to this bar he heard about."

Before Kai could administer a reply, Rei was running at top speed to the entrance of the platform. Something decisively bitter and painful tugged at his stomach. At that moment, he didn't know what he wanted more –– to cry or die. He could do neither and he felt very cheated.

* * *

Rei sighed heavily and leaned his forehead against the cool transporter window. Those who knew him would think that the gesture seemed completely foreign on him, but as of late, he was moody and silent. None knew why, of course. Rei, though he was what one would call a people's person –– meaning that he preferred the company of others rather than solitude –– was in actuality rather closed off. His smiles and jests rarely meant anything, the real ones reserved only for very close friends, which were few to begin with. His pensiveness, however, suggested a soul troubled by more than could be conceived by a first glance, or even a lifetime of observation.

It had been more than a week since the incident at the offshore observation platform, and Rei was still plagued by the guilt over what had happened. He didn't know what to think anymore, didn't know what he was. All his life he'd been taught that such things were evil and against the law. But why did such a simple gesture make him feel a trembling child? Why were there jittery bubbles in his stomach, why did his cheeks flush at the mere thought? Why did he have to think of Kai as handsome in the first place, why didn't he resist more when he'd been kissed? And why oh why did he want to do it again? On some small level, he felt dirty for even thinking it. At the same time, he didn't care about what stupid laws stated. Everything had become complicating in a matter of seconds.

He looked out the window. Outside was a sightless scene, a stretch of barren nothingness. No buildings stood, no people walked. Just the ruins of some ancient, or maybe even modern city, a filthy bog sweeping over. Outside the main cities, nothing else existed –– it couldn't, really, with the poison in the earth and the exposure to the atmosphere.

The transport that took them to Delhi came just on time; Rei didn't even realize as the week passed by, too busy with pretending to enjoy himself and trying to avoid Kai. He was glad for how quickly things were moving. The world would not wait for him to resolve his issues.

"It used to be a flourishing city not too long ago," was said quietly.

Rei stiffened but remained otherwise unruffled. He did not dare to look at Kai, feeling a mixture of awkwardness and trepidation pull at his nerves. He promised himself that he wouldn't be affected by what had happened, but from his current position that didn't seem an easy task to achieve.

"At the start of the war," Kai went on, heedless of the other's silence, "this used to be mercantile town. Then one day, storm troops infiltrated the city's grounds, because of its wealth. Everything was totalled down, not a woman or child survived."

Rei almost cringed from the coolness in Kai's voice. Clean and mechanical. What else should he have expected? He supposed that it was just Kai's way to deal with things, to block them out behind a sheet of ice so they wouldn't be able to hurt him.

A long time ago he heard a story which stated that the souls of those who died without a reason would remain at the place of their death to remind those still living of their ultimate destruction. Looking at the desolation beyond the window, the feeling of impending doom pressed harder on Rei.

The only outcome to this war was destruction. There were no more just wars to liberate the oppressed and preserve freedom. He resisted a bitter laugh at this. One day he'd kill for no other reason than being told to do so, and he would do so with all the strength he had. It made him feel like a dispensable tool.

Kai came to stand close to him, bracing against the wall. As an offhanded thought, Rei wondered if the man realized what he had done and whether he felt guilty about it.

He smirked, feigning haughtiness. That was something he understood, could handle expertly. "I didn't think you'd actually have the guts to go against your grandfather's orders and come here," he said in what he hoped was even-tempered manner.

Kai lifted a shoulder in a shrug, grunting as per usual. "I didn't think I had much to lose."

Rei left it at that. Kai didn't seem to be wanting to reveal too much about himself, and that was fine with him. He, after all, didn't go around telling his innermost thoughts, why should Kai? Besides, he doubted it even mattered anymore. They weren't even friends, wartime acquaintances, really.

He chuckled dryly. "You do realize that we'll be like one of those corpses out there one of these days?" He asked, pointing outside.

"Hn."

"It's funny how we're going to be protecting lives by taking them away. We're like the carriers of death, I think," Rei said, chortling humorously.

"What else can we be? What's left for us to be?" Kai asked in return, not really expecting an answer.

Rei leaned his forehead against the cold glass, not seeing anything. At least Kai didn't bring up what happened a week ago. Maybe Rei had just imagined the whole thing, which made him feel even sleazier. Problem was, he wanted Kai to want it, too. He could still feel the whisper of that kiss and he wanted another, and another and everything that he could possibly have. But Kai was obviously ignoring the issue. He felt as if he had been trampled on and then thrown aside like a useless thing.

It seemed like some infernal joke had been played on him. His stomach began to chew on itself again.

"Kai?" He asked quietly after the silence had grown heavy and burdensome.

"Hn?"

When after a little while Rei didn't say anything, the other man turned to regard him. Instantly, a punch was thrown at his abdomen. He was not prepared for the hit so he flinched and doubled over. Rei kneeled in front of him.

Before anything could escape his lips, however, Rei silence him. "That was for stealing my first kiss."

Kai hissed a curse under his breath. Referring to what had happened was a low blow coming from the brunet, and it hurt. Knowing that the kiss had been Rei's first was even more painful; Kai felt lower than scum. He was hoping that both of them could pretend it never happened.

"And this is because I won't let you get away with doing something as stupid as that without repercussions."

Kai didn't have more than a blink of an eye to dwell on the meaning of the statement when soft lips were pressed to his. It didn't last longer than a couple of seconds, though that was enough to completely petrify him. Coherent thought ceased to function, as did every other life-sustaining organ in his body. ‛God...' the word ricocheted in his mind, though he didn't know whether it was in praise or prayer.

Rei flicked his tongue tentatively across the other's lips and drew away. Hastily, he rose to his feet, murmuring a broken, "you're right, I am yours" and walked away.

(...continua...)

* * *

_1 I had completely forgotten that I put this in here. Slight reference to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, when Viola speaks to Orsino about her candid feelings. _


	5. Dom Dori Rei

**Warning:**_ Things of **extremely** sexual nature between two men ensues. Beware._

**

* * *

Chapter V: Dom Dori Rei (As Long as the Sinner is Sent to Die)**

When the transporter finally arrived at the appointed destination it was the middle of the night. Most of the passengers aboard had been nearly thrown out of their sleeping cots by the abrupt stop, the standing officers toppling one after another like dominos. Rei, having been in a state of almost-sleep, had just enough time to grab a hold of the arm support on the side of his sleeping compartment when the entire transporter jerked forward.

He hissed a curse under his breath, heaving himself out of the opening and jumping down to the floor. Others less fortunate than him were groggily hefting themselves off the ground where they had fallen, muttering profanities.

"You wouldn't mind helping me, would you?"

Rei turned to regard Oliver, who had spoken. He stifled a chuckle at seeing the dirty-blond practically dangling halfway from his cot and went over to help.

"They could have prepared us more, those damn bastards!" Takao muttered darkly from where he was buried under several layers of blankets and limbs on the floor. "Somebody should tell them that there's precious cargo aboard!"

Rei snorted and reached out his hand to help out his friend. "You couldn't possibly be implying that you're that precious cargo, would you Takao?" He asked with a teasing grin. It felt easier to express such emotions, though there was still an uncomfortable pang inside when he did.

Takao playfully punched at the air when he was finally upright, trying fruitlessly to aim for Rei's arm. "What else could it be?" He retorted haughtily. "I am the best there ever was, naturally!"

Maxie came up to them then, grinning goofily. He rolled his eyes at the blue-haired boy's statement. "Just don't let the commanding officers catch you saying that, you know how big their egos are!" He chuckled lightly, scratching at the back of his head. "Which reminds me, we better hurry up. I can hear the slave-drives coming closer and closer."

Takao groaned miserably, bending down to clutch at one of the fallen blankets. He murmured something to the extent of suffering too much abuse than his poor little self could handle and shuffled down the aisle of cots after his blond friend, to where the lavatories and the storage compartments were located.

Rei watched his companions grow smaller and smaller as they moved farther away from him. He let his grin melt off his face. It was no use having it on when there was nobody to show it off to. What was the point of acting cheerful when he was not, in fact. Squeezing his eyes shut, he tore lightly at his fringe, tugging at the hair as if trying to wake up — except that he was already awake and the pain was too dull to be felt.

All around him, his companions were busily bustling to and fro, hissing when they stumbled on a discarded item or bumped into someone else. It was also no use brooding on things that were beyond his ability to change.

He hefted himself back onto his bunk, and dug in the corner where he hid his bag, stuffing the few of his possessions inside. They'd gone through this routine before: get up and ready to leave in less than half an hour or have their respective Commanders descend on them like vultures with punishment. He smirked at the thought.

It seemed frighteningly ironical, how they were moved from place to place in very short time spans but remained always in the same group. Apparently, it was dangerous to get too attached to one place but that didn't apply to people, in a twisted sort of way that didn't make much sense. They fought to protect the nation, yet it was their fellow comrades that they were attached to.

Rei shook his head to get rid of the thoughts. As of late, the topic had been popping up in his head more and more often. He supposed it was because he was so close to the war front. Back in the slums, even back in the Academy, the war did not seem real. It was almost like the conflict and the rest of the world were separate entities, knowing of each other's existence through meagre communication. He remembered hearing news of things from telescreens or the gossipmongers on the streets. The image of war that was painted was not as serious as it actually was.

Now, he could almost feel the earth pulsate with the tension, hear the gunshots. It was frightening and exciting at the same time.

Takao and Max came shuffling back again, both wearing comical grins. They seemed almost grown up now. Somewhere inside of him, a pang went off, painful and pleasant all at once. He'd first seen them small and wide-eyed, had witnessed them spread out and become stronger, and now all too suddenly they weren't the little kids he'd met at first. For a moment he was reminded of his other family – when had he started thinking of this ragtag group as his family? – and something sharp twisted in his gut. He had not thought of them in so long, their faces were so distant now, as if the memory was trying to collapse in on itself.

He wondered where Lai and others were at this moment. He knew that they had the common sense to stay off trouble, but there were always other things that could destroy a person. Despite the distance between them and the time that has gone by, Rei still felt responsible for their welfare. ‛I hope that my death will bring them happiness,' he thought ruefully.

"Rei, bud, you just missed the funniest thing in the world!" Takao exclaimed, bracing against a nearby bunk. "You know the short kid from the second division? The one with a boulder for a nose and hair the colour of puke? Well, he was so scared, he pissed all over himself and when the other Commanders came for check-up, he started bawling his eyes out! Imagine that! Whining like a baby because he was scared of getting off!"

Takao's chortles rocked his slighter body even as he reached for his cot, a few guttural snickers and snorts escaping past his lips. Max grinned in answer, his amusement less obvious. It wasn't really funny to begin with, but Rei supposed it would seem that way if nerves were strung to their fullest. Everybody was feeling the uneasiness, like an onset of a sickness.

"Poor boy!" Added the blond, pulling on his uniform jacket. "I don't know what's worse: embarrassing yourself like that in front of the Commanders or dying!"

Takao threw his head back, guffawing bashfully. "I'd say death would be the lesser of the two evils!" He stated. "At least then he'd get to keep his balls!"

Maxie joined him in merriment, as did Rei. Their laughter ricocheted off the metal walls and the tension seemed to abate slowly, draining out of his system.

Everybody seemed to have found a way to get rid of the stress and by the time they were massed together on the path outside, there was a sort of giddiness. Several men had to be disciplined on the spot for causing minor brawls, others were laughing over the silliest things. Rei once again donned a cloak of haughtiness, cocking his head to the side when observing the others.

It was a long wait until all the cadets were sorted out to their proper squads, there being almost two hundred aboard the transporter. By the time it was their turn to get off and Rei finally laid eyes on Kai, his nonchalant demeanour was waning. As he passed by his Commander, Rei's jaw muscles involuntarily clenched, eyes darting to the darkness just outside the open portal. He did not want to acknowledge Kai because that would also mean admitting his discomfort with the man.

At the moment, Rei's nerves were too taught for him to give much thought over what had transpired earlier between them – not that he didn't think about it, if the past week of sleeplessness was any indication. He concentrated completely on what lie ahead of him, ignoring the searing garnet glare following after him.

The youth's feet felt all too heavy when he stepped off the transporter, his heart and lungs dropping down into his feet. Others around him stumbled and stared at the alien surroundings.

"All of you, hurry up!" Kai barked out sharply.

Rei glanced at him, too distracted to notice the impulsive gesture. The awe-inspiring hideousness of the landscape did not seem to affect Kai in the slightest. As an angry after thought, Rei wondered whether anything at all fazed the him.

Ahead of them, other teams were following their respective leaders to the compound. The transporter's engines were beginning to fire up with a thunderous noise, already preparing for departure.

"It's like the only thing that matters is that we get here, what happens after is rat poo!" Muttered a dark-haired man that Rei didn't come to like very much.

"It's no time for gossip, Styne!" Their Commander growled lowly.

A few grumbled curses were sent Kai's way but he was either oblivious or ignored them completely. Despite the sourness of the situation, they hefted their bags off the ground and prepared to set off.

Less than two minutes into their trek, the sky suddenly lit up, a white-hot firework blossoming overhead.

Rei looked up, his eyes stinging from the brightness but unable to look away. Dimly, he heard Kai – he'd never mistake that voice – yell for something but at the moment his heart pulsated so fast and loud that it seemed to drown out all other noise. He was aware of the ground shaking beneath him and then falling to his knees. The brunet ignored his stinging palms and knees, the flesh torn on the grating earth, and tried to get back up again. He barely managed to stumble a few steps when he was thrown back to the ground, a heavy weight on his legs.

Rei cursed under his breath, still partially blinded, and pushed at the weight to try and dislodge it. There was a sort of numbness inside of him, a visceral sensation gnawing on his innards and there was also fear. Without even consciously realizing it, concern for his teammates sprouted and it left Rei almost breathless. He tugged on his legs, pushing at the weight all the while.

"Let go!" He screamed but not registered having done so.

In his head there was an incessant buzzing, jarring just behind his eyes and temples. Everything was just so loud; his own breath and heartbeat, the shouts – it was deafening and dizzying. He tried to wiggle himself into an upright position, but his entire body was pushed into the ground, the weight seeming to grow heavier and heavier with every minute.

Just when everything seemed to become white-hot and unbearable, all noise stopped and Rei instantly thought that this was more painful than the deafening roar of the explosion. After a while of just lying there and struggling not to move or breathe, hands pulled at him. He tried to wrestle, disorientation and confusion making his head feel thick, but the steely grip on his arms was too tight.

He felt himself yell for something but he couldn't remember having thought of doing so. Everything was such a blur; hands brushing at his hair and face, prodding his body in places. The return of sound was almost like the onset of a huge storm. For a moment there was the endless fear that he'd been captured and was on his way to the torture compounds, but that didn't add up because he'd thought it would hurt more.

Rei winced, a spasm shooting through his lower abdomen. He blinked a couple of times, remembering that he had closed his eyes at some point. After the brightness of whatever-it-was, the sudden darkness was unbearable. 1

"...there will be a nasty bruise just here." Rei heard when the buzzing receded somewhat; a finger was pocked at his side again, the ache returning.

He tried to say something, but his throat closed in on itself, a sort of gargled moan making through. Immediately, a water container was thrust into his hands and, when he couldn't comprehend what to do with it, brought to his lips. Rei took greedy gulps of the offered drink, not caring that little rivulets were running down his chin.

The same hands pulled him up again. "We have to get going." Was the coolly spoken statement.

The tone in the other's voice jeered some gear inside Rei's head. Understanding crashed on him hard and fast. With a little unwanted gasp he realized from the little light that was available that Kai was the one touching him and that others were stirring around him.

He pulled away with a hiss, rubbing at the side of his torso. "Oh fuckers with holy sticks! What in Hell was that?" He demanded, trying to decide if he was furious or scared out of his wits.

Kai shrugged coolly, rising to his feet. "That, was a minor Sweeper Bomb," he informed them all, silencing everything else with his deep, booming voice. He seemed completely composed, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened and he could just continue on his jolly way. Rei growled quietly but otherwise said nothing. "They fly overhead, targeting various facilities, and then explode in a cloud-like way. Unless you want to lose your limbs, it'd be wise to stay low, or run."

Murmurs rose after his statement but he didn't seem to notice. Kai hefted his discarded bag over his shoulder, beginning to move away. Rei noticed the think trickle of blood just above his jawbone and instantly his stomach knotted. But Kai appeared to be completely oblivious, his cool persona reinforced back in place. This, if anything, made Rei angry. He'd settle for anything from Kai – be it pain or verbal humiliation – but he did not like being on the receiving end of a cold shoulder.

"Can't you even consider the welfare of your own teammates for once?" Rei demanded before he even realized it.

Kai halted in his progress, his back already turned. He shrugged one shoulder (the other harboured a series of nasty bruises, not that he'd tell) and said, "The explosions were far enough not to cause lethal damage. They'll survive."

And he walked away, his back straight, not looking back to see if the rest followed. Rei rose to his feet as well, wincing at the ache in his side. The brunet allowed himself another moment to fume before his anger, which as of late came in bouts and disappeared as quickly as they had developed. He bent down to help one of his teammates off the ground.

The boy, for he looked no older than his early teens, like most of the men on his team, was clearly frightened out of his wits. Rei smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner and patter the boy on the back.

"It's all right," he said as a whisper, so just the two of them would hear; he didn't the boy to suffer humiliation.

The kid nodded in acknowledgment but his eyes were still round and moist from shock. "I... I've never... God..." he stammered unintelligibly though it seemed to say a lot.

Rei gave him another soothing pat on the back and moved on to find his two friends. The team was shaken but still in one piece when they set off after their Commander, who was no more than a dark silhouette against even darker sky. It was comforting to have someone Rei considered family close by, but even that comfort was minimal. Max kept on glancing behind and all around him, his hands jerking ever so slightly. Takao, who he'd thought would brush the entire episode as a joke, was unusually quiet, shuffling his feet with precise sluggishness.

'Just as well,' he thought, 'then I'll be strong for the rest of them.'

Before long, the city rose as if from the shadows. A silent, terrifying gasp passed though the assembled. Rei felt his breath catch painfully in his throat. If he had thought that the slums of Sector 5 were Hell, the word just got a new definition.

Rei had never seen anything like it. Delhi, it had been said, was once a great capital, with spiring towers and domed structures, marvels of art and architecture. Now it was a spectre of what it used to be. Great, tall pillars stood along the horizon, blinking ominous red lights, as if in warning. Whereas New Asia was aglow from artificial light, the only thing that provided any illumination to this city were a few giant headlights.

But it was the ground level that was truly horrifying. As he followed the rest of the squad through the city, he was struck with a sort of raw disgust.

The buildings stood crumbling at his feet, huge chunks of rock standing as if in guard to something momentously hideous. Whole structures were hollow, empty dark maws looking out to the desecrated streets. The stench was terrible as well; it was as if the sewage that ran underneath the earth had sprouted and drenched the entire city. Signs of human decay were everywhere. Corpses formed mounds, like miniature mountains, in the shadows of ruined buildings. Fires were lit up in garbage pails and along the sidewalks. Electricity poles had crashed into homes, sparks still dancing from where the cables were torn.

Rei's foot caught on a stone and he kicked it away from him, realizing too late that it was actually a piece of mangled bone.

No one dared to say anything, nothing really needed to be said.

A dry, scratchy wind picked up, tugging at their hair and biting painfully at their faces. It sounded as if the entire town moaned as the breeze passed through it's broken structure. Only the rats stirred.

And so like this, faces stained with dust and blood, tired and frightened nearly out of their wits, they trotted through the streets after their leader, to where none knew.

* * *

Kai swore under his breath and closed off the Comm. Link. A million and one obscenities rushed to his head but he brushed them aside, instead flicking away a few locks from his eyes, as if by doing so he could also get rid of his frustration. Not that it made a difference; his hair had the perennial 'just out of bed' look. And, just like his hair, the problem just returned with a doubled effort. 

He knew it would not be wise to leave the Academy without consulting Voltaire first; not that he needed to – he already knew what his grandfather was going to say. Now Hiwatari Senior was royally furious, sending Boris after his errant heir.

Kai swore again, much less vehemently and pushed away from the small study desk he managed to set up in his room (yet again, his surname alone was enough to warranty him a private cabin, tiny as it was). He had enough problems in his cup, adding more would spill the entire thing and he wasn't sure he could handle the consequences. He could tell that his men were nervous from such close proximity to real combat, Boris would doubtlessly do everything in his power to bring Kai down, and Rei... well, Rei deserved another category altogether.

The youth checked his watch, noting that he had an appointment of sorts in fifteen minutes. Four men from the enemy side had been captured and top four Commanders, him being one of them, were to report for interrogation.

"Way to go Kon," he murmured to himself, as he had a tendency to do as of late and zipped up his vest; "I allow you freedom and you screw everything up."

The tension between them was now too much for the Kai to ignore, like an ever-present shroud. He feared that perhaps he had been doomed from the first moment he met the feisty raven-haired man and that he had somehow, unwittingly, sped up his own demise. Kai wasn't the type of person that sought to rectify a problem whence one arose, opting instead for it to be resolved with time. In this case, however, it was more than he could bear. He wanted to talk to Rei, to just see him. What he would do or say he did not know yet and the uncertainty was unnerving.

Things between the two of them had changed so much and so rapidly that it left him almost breathless. He could not remember when exactly those things started to change and that lack of hindsight made it seem as if they had always been that way. Kai felt as if he was dancing dangerously close to fire; if he took one more step he would be burned, and he didn't have time for that. On the other hand, he so badly wanted to take that step. Now, Rei was as solid to him as his own being – Rei was there, incessant, constant and powerfully real – and that was something he had not felt for another person since his childhood. He loathed to admit it, but he came to need the brunet desperately.

He ran a hasty hand through his hair once again, forcefully steering his thoughts to something he knew how to handle. With one last look about the room, Kai exited and headed down a harshly empty hallway to the appointed room.

The military base was a humongous underground compound that reminded him more or less of rats' nest. Corridors and hallways veered off every-which way, long rows of doors on either side. Other than the mess hall and the exercise rooms there were no forms of entertainment. Everything seemed unforgiving and cold, barren metallic walls and austere light; Kai supposed that was done so it looked as little as possible like home. And he also had to note that the base contained the largest amount of females he had seen gathered in one place at one time.

The females were very peculiar things, he decided then. The only ones he'd met before were those that occasionally came to the Academy and the maid that took care of him when he was a child. These creatures seemed completely different. They painted strange things on their faces and wore considerably less clothing than the soldiers, which Kai could not figure out the reason to; wouldn't they get cold? Weirder still was the way some men would disappear and then return hours later all but strutting. Prostitution wasn't an unknown thing to him; he would have to be blind to not notice it in the streets at home but back there it had not seemed out of the ordinary.

He found himself irrationally irritated and he scowled at the air. Bombshells were dropping above, hundreds of wounded were sent in on a daily basis; there shouldn't have been time to develop any kind of relationship. The women seemed like a foreign element in his territory. But, maybe, some of his vehemence was because of the amount of women that seemed to flounce around Rei. That, however, was ridiculous, he told himself.

Kai shrugged off the irritation that was once again beginning to settle in his stomach. The quiet _thud-thud_ of his standard military boots sounded awfully loud in the emptiness of the hallway and he found himself wondering why no one else was about. He turned a corner then the next, ending up in front of a grey automatic door, much like the rest. Looking at it, you would not have imagined hat all kinds of torture were exercised behind that door; Kai didn't.

After the standard procedure, the door opened and he walked in with a stiffness that had been drilled into him since infancy. The sudden darkness in the room seemed a horrendous contrast to the harsh brightness in the corridor behind him. He stepped in further and the door closed quietly, sealing him away in an entirely different world.

The two guards posted on each side of the door, whom he had not noticed until that moment, nodded silently to him and then withdrew to their shadowed corners. Kai could barely see and he wondered at that; what was the point in keeping a prisoner in the dark? Two computer panels with faintly glowing touch keys were ahead of him, barely illuminating the chair that stood more or less in the middle of the room. Another officer stood in front of the panel, stoic and rigid from what Kai could discern.

The Commander strode over to lean against the second console. His eye almost flashed in the darkness as he nodded his consent to the officer. Appropriate keys were pressed and then a jarring light flared over the chair in the middle; Kai and the other three occupants of the room remained unseen, blackened out.

The chair, now visible, was an ordinary-looking piece of furniture; dull in colour, as if in league with the rest of the motive. Draped over the chair was a mass of coiled cloth, drooping off to one side. Kai knitted his brows and turned to give a sideway glare to the man at the consol, who remained immobile (for which he should have received an award, given how fatal Kai's glares were). It was then that Kai came to the sinking and sickening realization that the rags were not rags at all, but actually the man he had been called in to interrogate.

The atmosphere remained lethal in the room, nothing moved, no noise was made save for the breathing and the quiet whirr of the computer. A pungent smell had settled in the air. Kai could not identify it but it seemed awfully familiar. Kai made a coughing sound deep in his throat; he was not in the mood to wait idly, and if truth were told, he had no idea how to proceed.

The clump of cloth shifted. A sharp edge Kai identified as the elbow stuck out from under the rags. The rest of the man followed. What was revealed – for it was hard giving the man a name, an actual identification as human – froze the Kai's insides wholly.

The man's flesh sagged around the eyes, drooping hideously in flaps over high, protruding cheekbones. His lips were swollen and chapped, pieces of cracked flesh flaking off. Kai could see dirt and blood clogging the many wrinkles and folds. His eyes sunk deep into the sockets, the sloped, hairless forehead and the sharp shadows made the man seem skeletal. The skin was almost like another layer of clothing, he had lost so much weight. Kai had to bite down the bile rising to his throat.

He blinked owlishly at Kai, the motion sluggish from drugs and too much light. Again, Kai had to fight the urge to vomit.

"Do you know why you are here?" Kai asked after a long, stuffy pause. He rolled the words on his tongue, testing them against the grainy silence. (The language was multinational, so there was no chance of the man not understanding him.)

At first he didn't think the man heard him, remaining slumped against the chair. Then Kai heard it, rather than saw, as the man's shoulders lifted and then dropped down again. The only other sound was the fabric grating roughly against skin. The motion was repeated again and again, subtle at first then rising to a maniacal pace. The laughter came then, slow and guttural, as if there was too much blood clogging the throat and it was tying to escape. Involuntarily, the tiny hairs on the back of Kai's neck stood up, electrified.

"Do you know why _you_ are here?" The man asked in return. It was hard to distinguish from in-between the man's brusque voice and the slur that could have been caused by missing teeth. There was an amused, deranged note and it was all Kai could do not to imagine a matching smile.

"You have been captured by the enemy side." Saying it, the Kai felt silly, as if he had been discussing what he had for breakfast that morning with another no-face; awfully fake and pretentious.

The man laughed harder and there seemed to be a painful quality to the sound, like there wasn't enough of the man so his voice made up the rest.

"Have ya ever killed anyone, boy?" The man quarried instead, lifting his hollowed eyes to look at Kai.

The Commander stayed silent, fending off the gaze across the two of them as if it was a deadly weapon. If he was a man of lesser will, he might have submitted into fright.

"Aa. Thought so." His lips twitched in an imitation of a smirk, the bruised flesh tearing to form new cuts, revealing rust-coloured teeth. "Funny how they send boys who've never ever seen a real battle to fight a war, huh?" He seemed to know something of what Kai was thinking because he added, "That's right, we have the same thin' on our side, too."

Kai ignored the implications. "What were your objectives? What area is going to be targeted next?" He knew it was futile to ask; the man didn't seem to be in the right state of mind, but he could not change the protocol.

Just as he predicted, the man fired his own series of questions. "So, why are you here? In the army, I mean? Is it glory? Something ya young people find fun and attractive? For the hell of it?" His voice became small and raspy at the end, tentative as if he was testing how far he could stretch his chances in front of Kai. The look he sent the youth's way from under the shadows of his hollowed eye sockets was soulless though there was dark humour in what he said.

Kai shifted his feet, crossing one over the other, simply to appear nonplussed.

The prisoner – for that was what he was and Kai was a fool if he believed otherwise – laughed throatily, brokenly. "I tell ya one thing, and ya better listen 'cause it's the single most important thing ya will ever need if ya want to stick in this profession for long: Forget everything you've been taught. War's nothin' like that. Animals, barbarous swine. That's all ya get. You kill or live. Can ya deal with that, boy?"

The response that came from Kai was mechanical, a standard reply he'd been told to give: "I have to."

The man laughed again, harder this time but the sound was hollow and sent little chills down Kai's back. The man's shoulders shook, the gesture and his soiled rags seeming to swallow him whole. When he spoke again, his words came out slowly, as if laughing had put too much of a strain on him, as if had sucked the last of his energy dry.

"Ya never expect things to turn out that way, that's why it hits ya under the belt so hard. Ya think that everythin' will turn out sparkling, ya expect to go in and come back later with a trophy and a head as a souvenir!" He then croaked something incomprehensible but it sounded suspiciously like a sob. "I tells ya, it ain't nothing like that. Nothing like it at all..." He choked on air and drew quiet.

Kai stood watching him, not daring to move or even breathe. He was paralysed on the spot and he didn't understand why. Something was nagging at him, but it was too hard to determine what and that was a frightening sensation to Kai, who always liked to know everything. Looking at this prisoner, he was reminded of that drunkard he had met almost a month prior and his grandfather when his mother had died when he was five. It was a strange feeling to be looking at his sworn enemy and instead seeing familiar people.

The man's unintelligible mumbles took shape and soon Kai could discern what he was saying. "...An' ya don't realize it because you're too stupid and blind and young to know the difference that you have been indoctrinated from the day you were born. I didn't know, no one does. I just went along, signed the papers, completed the training, given a plasma rifle and sent out into the battlefield. Ya've been a soldier for most of yer life, haven't ya, boy?"

Kai nodded and his stomach twisted.

"Do ya know how this war started?"

The Commander shook his head slowly. His insides seemed to shrink and then jolt harshly. Irritably, he thought he knew what the man was getting at.

"Neither do I. No one knows anymore; it's just something done. Funny, isn't it?" He asked sardonically. "I've never been told what the war was about. I was told to shoot anybody who had a gun to my temple, even my best friend. And I would have done it!" He wailed the last statement then dropped his head so his chin almost connected with his collar. Soft whimpers could be heard from him and when his first tears fell onto the fabric, Kai thought it was deafening.

He turned away. In part he was disgusted at such a show of weakness; in part he was disgusted at himself. Here was a man, filthy, starved and halfway deranged, tortured and sobbing and Kai could not tell the difference between him and a beggar on the street, or an old war hero. Without even realizing it, Kai wondered whether he, too, could be this man sitting across from him sometime in the future. Frighteningly, he could. Were their positions reversed and he was the one sitting in that chair, he would be just like this man, broken and void. Given the choice, he would kill the person dearest to him simply because he was told that it was the right thing and he would believe it, too.

Somehow, seeing the man reminded Kai of himself; as if a copy of him was taken, breathed life into and then let out into the world. The difference was that his mimic was dead everywhere except on the outside. And he was not, he repeated adamantly to himself, he could not; he was feeling this now and that meant something. Kai could feel, he was alive.

His back stiff, Kai extricated himself from the computer panel and walked toward the exit. He ignored the officer's bemused stare he knew trailed after his retreating back and he glared at the two guards before him.

"There is no need to interrogate him further," he said in a quietly, deeply. He hoped that the turmoil he felt would not be betrayed in his demeanour. "Clearly, the wretch has no information to give."

The door opened before him and when he stepped out into the corridor, the harshness of it was even sharper then before he entered. Silently, Kai walked back to his chambers, his jaw set hard and his fists clenched at his sides. He might have failed his mission and would receive severe consequences for that but he had learned one thing and it struck him hard, deep enough to shake the core of his entire being: There were no enemies, no good or bad, everyone was equal.

* * *

Rei plopped down beside his friends and comrades in the mess hall after another gruelling day of pointless training and exercises. He thought he had escaped it when the entire division was relocated but things couldn't be farther from the truth. The days seems to go even slower, as if in accordance with what was to come and Rei found an unpleasant uneasiness settling in his stomach. In almost a week that he has spent there, he could count the times he'd seen his Commander on one hand. He should have been grateful for the respite, he reminded himself. Despite that, however, he discovered that more and more often his thoughts returned to the grey-haired Iceman, like a cycle that always ended and began with Kai. 

"Excuse me?" Rei heard right next to his ear and turned to regard a big-chested blonde that somehow slithered close to him without him noticing. Probably because he was too distracted with thoughts of Kai, he opined demurely. "May I sit here?" She gestured to the tiny spot next to him on the bench.

There was a moment of hesitation on Rei's part. Absent-mindedly he noted that the entire table seemed to suspend all activity in expectation. He thought of how small the space was and how the girl's cleavage seemed to almost pop out of her shirt, and then an unbidden image of Kai invaded his head. He was shocked to find himself wondering what Kai would think if he saw him sitting with the blonde, and Rei was even more surprised at himself for hoping that the reaction would be negative. If he were to delve deeper in the matter, he would realize that he wanted Kai to feel jealous, as if he had been replaced.

Meanwhile this internal battle was raging on, Rei grinned widely and plastically at the girl as he knew was expected of him and moved just a fraction to allow her some more room. That done, the entire table released the single, collective breath they had held unknowingly.

The blonde girl, who might have mentioned her name at one point or another but which the youth did not bother to catch, smiled hugely in return – a gesture that seemed frog-like to Rei – and sat pompously next to him. The raven-haired man tried to ignore how threateningly close she was but that became harder to do when her hand accidentally brushed his thigh and then refused to leave it. Despite the sexual overtones, Rei couldn't help but feel slightly repulsed. She didn't even know him.

An alien presence in such close proximity to him reminded him once again of Kai. How would Kai's hands feel on his thigh instead of the girl's? Would Kai actually dare to do something like that; would he let him? Another image came to mind: his own hands, on naked flesh and moving lower. Kai had nice hands, he remarked a while ago; he'd bet it would feel even nicer if they were doing that. He could almost feel the feather-like touches along his abdomen and inner thigh and it was a struggle not to groan. He had been getting similar images for good portion of an entire month and they were becoming very difficult to suppress and ignore. The uncomfortable tightening of his trousers was also difficult to ignore.

Unfortunately for him, the girl also noticed this and smiled in a very feline manner. Her hand travelled higher, closer to the vicinity of his inner thigh and his manhood. Rei hissed lowly and narrowed his eyes dangerously at her. He hurriedly removed her hands and turned to angrily scrutinize the food-mush. All the while he fiercely tried to will his erection to go away. The brunet could feel the girl regarding him venomously. Thankfully, the rest of the table did not seem to notice the small exchange and continued with easygoing chatter.

"Hey, Rei?"

The youth turned to look questioningly at Enrique, who had spoken. "Yea?"

"You wouldn't happen to know when the Commander is leaving, would you?" The lime-haired boy asked. Rei almost bit his tongue at the mention of the source of his current problem.

He frowned and knit his brows together. Had he missed something? "No," he replied slowly. "Did something happen with the Icecube?" His voice shook too much for his liking.

The man to his right turned to regard him with a weird look. "Didn't you hear? Hiwatari's going back to the Academy."

Johnny smirked and added with a sneer, "He didn't want to risk his lily-livered ass so he got his almighty granddaddy to pull him back. That bastard; I knew he wasn't to be trusted."

At this point, Rei was completely frozen. His insides glazed over and for a moment the air filling his lungs was razor-sharp. He could barely comprehend what was being said, though he saw lips moving and jumbled sounds coming out. He couldn't even form coherent thoughts. 'What?' Repeated in his head but he didn't know what it was referring to and he was just too shocked to answer.

When his head grew a little clearer Rei just caught on to the last of what Maxie was saying. "I thought you'd know something so important, Rei."

That was when rage the brunet had not though himself capable of possessing flared up. The accumulation of more than a month's worth of angst was brought to a boiling point. "Why should I know anything about him?" He asked tersely. As an after thought, he added, "It's not like it matters to me."

The blond shrugged, unwittingly shrinking back from the deadly vibes Rei was unconsciously emitting. "I just thought that you two were really good friends, is all. You... just seem to fit in so well together..."

Kenny spoke up from beside the petite blond. "We've all gone through so much together, it's gong to be tough without the Commander."

Rei remained silent. Under the table, his fists were clenched tightly enough to leave crescent moon imprints on his palms. A million colourful obscenities came to his lips but he didn't trust himself to utter them. His anger died to a simmer. Instead, he could feel something breaking within him as his friends talked almost mournfully. He was filled with a sense of loss and disappointment when at the same time he stubbornly reminded himself that he was supposed to be furious.

Takao smirked for show and said in a cool manner, "At least we wouldn't have to put up with that tyrant's bitching anymore."

Half-hearted laughter followed his statement. That seemed to be the straw that did it and Rei was pushing himself away from the bench without even thinking. Dimly, he was aware of his friends calling after him but he dismissed them with a shrug and a nonchalant wave. Though there was a plausible excuse planted firmly on his lips, the words weighed a tonne and didn't seem to want to leave. Everything seemed too fast, a whirlwind of sounds and colours and too confusing for him to distinguish one from the other. He was dizzy and his heart hurt but at the same time the world was at its clearest. It was as if all light had been turned off but for one and the one led him on a straight path he wasn't sure he wanted to follow.

One thing stood at the end of that path: Kai. He knew that that meant a confrontation and that brought a sinking feeling to his stomach.

In a way, it was his own damn fault. Rei had set things in motion with that one little jest, that one little verbal spar. He should have known. He was an idiot and he should have realized earlier that feelings were not meant to be messed with. He should have known that it was too dangerous. He should have stopped; shouldn't have ever started. But Kai was there and so cold, so perfectly frozen and untouchable. Rei only wanted to see him crumble, he didn't want to be included in the mixture. He should have sucked in his pride and ego and dick and ran away far, far away.

And what did he do? He decided to keep on being an idiot and face Kai head on with everything he had. He blamed himself for finding his leader to be so much more complex than the frozen little soldier-boy he first deemed him to be. How could he have expected Kai to have a heart as red and warm as his somewhere under all that crystal and ice? Was it wrong of him to feel such heat and so much emotion for anther person? Was he wrong for wanting it to be returned?

It had been only natural for Kai to retaliate; it did not surprise Rei that he did. He should have defined a clear line between jokes and his personal feelings. He should have prevented himself from wanting more of this man that somehow managed to get under his skin. He should have realized that he was in dangerous territory when all that he thought of was Kai.

Frustrated and ready to scream, Rei tugged at the ends of his hair. He wanted to express so much in that instant, to simply admit it to himself, but it was scary to even think about it. He bit the inside of his cheek when a little stymied whimper escaped.

That was when he finally noticed that he had unintentionally come to Kai's quarters. He had, of course, known where said chamber as, having wandered there on a few occasions. But the irony that his feet would automatically bring him to that particular door, like a beggar asking for patronage, was painfully obvious. It was almost enough to make him turn back. Before that thought could enact itself, however, he was pressing the digital button on the wall panel.

For an instant after realizing what he had done, Rei's first instinct was to run; he wasn't prepared for this, the frantic thought occurred. It fled from his head just as fast as the door zoomed noiselessly open and Kai stood looking out at him.

Time froze as they stared each other down. Something was met, connected, shattered and then made anew. A wordless agreement was exchanged between them, and even though neither of them could understand what was being said, the impact of it was visceral and gut wrenching. Blood rushed through the veins, pumping into heart and head. Time began to move again.

Kai stood in his doorway, newly out of a shower, evident by his wet hair. His pristine t-shirt was damp around the shoulders and just below his ribcage. Rei noted with a shiver that the triangles were missing on light-toned cheeks. This brought him to remember once remarking that Kai was more handsome this way; it was now more apparent than ever before and he ground his teeth to prevent from showing any kind of a reaction.

There was something indescribable on his face mixed with amusement, which was only identifiable by the glint in his eyes. Rei suddenly remembered that he was furious and heat rushed to his neck and ears.

Kai quirked an inquisitive eyebrow at the brunet on his doorstep, silently willing for him to go away and at the same time hoping he'd stay.

He watched as Rei regarded him darkly. He could see the emotions warring inside those honey-coloured eyes but he couldn't even fathom what the other was thinking. The brunet didn't say anything for a long moment, as if waiting for an appropriate moment to raise his voice.

"Is there anything you want, Rei?" Using the name at this particular time and given the recent happenings between the two of them felt awkward. Kai felt like an adolescent.

Slow colour crept into Rei's cheeks and he narrowed his eyes. He seemed to be trying to smoulder everything with that glare. Kai smirked inwardly at his fruitless effort. It seemed as if some of his internal amusement was mirrored on his face because Rei knitted his brows and pursed his mouth.

"Why?" He declared accusatively and pushed his way past Kai into the chamber.

The man flinched at the other's tone while his back was turned and moved to follow Rei. The door swished noiselessly close behind them but neither noticed.

"Care to elaborate?" He responded, stopping and leaning on the computer panel.

Rei was pacing in-between his bed and the tiny study desk, where a small artificial light sat. "Why?" He repeated and Kai wondered whether something had happened to screw with the normally composed youth's internal dialogue.

Kai didn't say anything, choosing to wait out the storm he could feel approaching.

"There are people depending on you, you know that?" The question was an unexpected one and Kai flinched form the ferocity of it. Rei paused his pacing and turned his head just to the side, considering something. "I didn't think a cold bastard like you could ever be a model. But no. Those boys – did you hear that; boys! – out there look up to you. They think you're the greatest soldier that ever lived!"

Rei sharply turned to face Kai. His eyes were dark and steely but instinctually Kai knew that he was feeling anything but calm and collected. There was heat in those eyes, a passion he's come to both loathe and adore. Something inside him stirred at the look. His fingers twitched to cling to something, but to what?

Rei laughed hoarsely, throwing his head to the side to enunciate the fake emotion. "And you know what? I thought so too!" His voice was high pitched, as if he was trying to grab onto something he couldn't quite handle. "I thought you were like one of those great historic generals; always knowing what to do, always having the respect of everyone. Always the best." Rei chuckled dryly and shook his head.

There was pain in Rei's voice now and that instantaneously alarmed Kai. For a second he wondered whether the brunet had lost his mind, as some men did before going to battle.

He went on sardonically. "Imagine my surprise when I found out that you'd be returning to your grandfather back in the Academy." Kai shrunk back at this, appalled, but Rei didn't seem to notice. "Then you really are a cold blooded killer. I really thought you were more..."

Rei's voice quietened down to a whisper at his last sentence and Kai had to move in closer to hear. Pain was clearly displayed on the other's face and it hurt him in an echo effect. The space between them was small enough for him to able to extend his arm and lay it on Rei' shoulder.

The raven-haired youth flinched back, as if scorched, and moved away from Kai as much as the restricted space allowed. The pain on his face had been replaced with anger.

"How could you?" Rei spat out and the gesture made him seem even more beautiful. "How could you just leave them there? You think it won't matter? War is not a joking business, not something you can dismiss or give a cold shoulder to, Kai. It is not about wanting to be free or to protect your people, it is about bloodshed and how many people you can kill the fastest."

By this point, Kai was thoroughly confused. His brows drew together. He was intent on setting Rei straight but just when he opened his mouth to speak the brunet continued.

"Your men, your friends will be dying out there, for you, because of people like you who have no idea how much it hurts to lose someone they care bout! You can't just leave them, Kai!" His voice was a painful pitch, desperate and holding too much emotion than Kai was used to.

Something was now pulsing urgently inside Kai's chest but he couldn't – wouldn't – give it a name. He wanted to see that hurt erased from Rei's face. He wanted to hold and soothe him, which was totally illogical because Kai simply did not do anything of the sort. But the sensation was powerful enough to send a furious heat to run along his skin. For the first time he noticed that his palms were sweaty and he tried wiping them off on his trousers.

"Rei —"

"Oh, just shove it!" Rei snarled and his eyes were pinched tight, purposely blocking Kai from sight. "You don't care about anything! You're the mighty Kai, and nothing ever gets by you, does it! You know everything, so you want to conquer life itself! Well, I've got news for you: fuck off!"

His expression was wild and raw. Raven hair escaped from their protective hold and fell haphazardly around flushed cheeks. His lips were red, which Kai suspected was from biting them too hard. The heat along Kai's skin travelled throughout his body, concentrating into a point just below his navel. He shivered and stepped closer to the other.

"Rei..." He breathed rather than said out loud, attempting to halt the brunet's raging spiel.

Rei was having none of it. He shrugged away Kai's reaching hands, batting them away from him when the other tried to reach again."Don't tell me it's not worth it! Don't tell me they are not worth dying for!" His voice was hoarse and he was struggling not to shake. 'That I am not worth it,' rang in his head. "You've — "

Kai laid a firm grip on the other's shoulders, peering intently into his eyes and willing his gaze to be returned. "Rei, you—"

Rei hissed and struggled to break away but Kai's hold was too strong and his emotional outburst had taken a fair bit of his energy. "You can't just quit because things got a little hard. You can't! I won't let you —"

"Rei."

Kai cupped the brunet's face, trying to tilt the head so Rei could look at him.

"Don't touch me! I told you to never touch me!"

Rei fought against the squall of emotions warring inside him. He didn't know what to do anymore. Things had gone out of hand and he was simply left floundering for a way to escape. A myriad of thoughts swam in his heads, one notion overcrowding on the next. Nothing made sense anymore. He shouldn't have said anything, shouldn't have reacted at all. But he did and he couldn't take that back.

All the while, he tried to parry off Kai's dark gaze. His eyes felt scorching on his skin and it wasn't until that moment that he noticed that he was perspiring profusely and his head felt unusually light. A strangled half-sob, half-chortle made it out of his closed throat. He was aware of the calluses on Kai's palms and the roughness against his flushed face brought a sense of stability to him.

It felt as if from a thousand miles away that he heard Kai speak his name.

"Rei. Look. At. Me." Every word was accentuated with a light jerk.

Almost against his will, his eyes lifted. Rei could barely see for a moment and he wondered why his eyelids felt like sandpaper. When he could make out Kai's dark eyes in the dimness, they seemed larger than usual and a shade richer and deeper than he thought possible. The room was threateningly hot and his senses swam deliriously.

Kai's eyes pierced through his soul, drawing his sight and entire being until the only thing Rei knew was the uncomfortable space between him and Kai.

"Listen to me, Rei. I am not going to leave you. Especially not now." Kai stated and his voice was raw and guttural. There was sincerity in Kai's words that left no room for questioning. Instantly, he knew that he'd been wrong. The pang of shame left a stinging imprint.

Rei did not point out that Kai had said "you" instead of "team." Somehow that made a monumental difference. He swallowed past the lump in his throat. "The guys said that you were going back to the Academy."

Kai chuckled but the sound came out as a low rumble deep in his throat that caused Rei to involuntarily close his eyes and inhale sharply. "I thought you had more faith in me than that," he murmured. Kai's warm breath on his face made him shiver.

Rei didn't dare to open his eyes. His voice quivered just slightly when he said, "You've never let me trust you." His nerves jumped anxiously and an electric-like thrill ran down his entire body. A familiar but not at all welcome heat concentrated in his groin.

"I've always believed in you." Kai murmured all too close to Rei's ear. The brunet swallowed again and pretended that he didn't notice the ticklish sensation along his jaw.

"Liar," Rei fired back, but even as he said it his resolve was cracking. He doubted he truly believed himself but acknowledging would mean admitting to Kai that he was wrong.

"I never lie." Even as he said it, Kai's lips were flittering along his jaw, nothing more than ghosting whispers.

A sound that was neither a sigh nor a whimper left Rei's lips. He could feel his entire body reacting to the simple ministrations even as he was trying hard to steel himself against it. It was like a magic touch. Little tingles ran along his skin, down his spine to settle in more southern regions.

It was a struggle to think coherently, and it was even more difficult to form words. So it was mostly out of instinct that the question managed to escape."What are you doing?"

Kai paused, his lips hovering just on the corner of Rei's mouth. The moment stilled between them. Both could feel their hearts pounding in their ears, the blood rushing and the rise and falls of their chests. Rei had taken the second to wonder what exactly had happened and to gain some reign on the flood of sensation, which was futile. Kai, on the other hand, wondered whether he had made a mistake in interpreting the signs.

Rei's eyes were half-lidded, his mouth parted in a silent plea. He was not trying to flee, he was not pulling away. In fact, his desire was as obvious as Kai's own. Relief and anxiousness mixed with lust to form one gut-wrenching sensation. Kai leaned in to kiss Rei fully and roughly on the lips.

Alarm bells went off in Rei's head, and that, if nothing else, made him put a hand on the other's chest and push lightly. "It's wrong, Kai," he breathed, sounding less sure of himself even as he said it. He dared to look at Kai, like a moth getting its first tentative taste of fire.

"Do you want this? Do you want me to stop?" Kai asked and his voice was deep and velvety. The drumming of Rei's heart and the pulsing emotion within his entire being was too much. He asked himself whether he wanted it and immediately his core screamed 'yes!'. Yes, he had wanted it, craved it, for nearly as long as they'd known each other and it was futile to ignore.

He moved his hand from Kai's chest to twine it around his neck. His other hand he rested on the man's cheek, brushing his thumb against the hot flesh. "No, God, no. Never stop. Do anything you want. Kill me. Just don't stop." He whispered and leaned into the few inches that separated them.

When their lips met, it was an awkward meshing of mouths and emotions. It was forceful enough to leave bruises but neither cared because at that moment it was the epiphany of their entire lives. Their bodies crashed together, as did their mouths and souls. Rei's tongue darted between his lips, clumsily asking permission to enter. Kai's own shy tongue met his somewhere inside his mouth. The brunet leaned into Kai, his nails digging into the other's shoulders. He pushed his tongue further, deeper, seeking the hotness inside. He sucked on Kai's bottom lip and Kai moaned in answer. A thrill went down Rei's spine and he pressed himself closer to Kai, as if wanting to melt into one being.

Kai thrust his own tongue against Rei's, pushing to the side and into his mouth. Rei pushed back, wanting to dominate the situation. Their tongues vied for supremacy, but somehow it felt that the real battle was on a metaphysical level that they did not know existed. It was a struggle as old as time itself, expressed in its purest and most powerful way. Neither wanted to part, clutching to lips and clothes as if trying to hold onto to a sweet dream, only breaking apart for breath.

Kai's mouth travelled to the other's jaw, his kiss-moistened lips tentatively brushing fluttering kisses to Rei's right ear. The brunet threw his head back and bit his lip, stifling the pleasurable moan. 'Where did Kai learn how to do this so well?' the thought flitted and was gone just as quickly when Kai's lips closed over his earlobe. This time, he did let the moan escape, allowing it to rumble deeply in his throat before releasing it mixed with Kai's name.

Kai sucked on the tender flesh. His body tingled from the guttural sound of his name and a pressing though not at all uncomfortable heat concentrated in his manhood. Rei shifted his head to the side, allowing Kai better access to his ear and neck. Rei's hands slithered to the other's nape, where his fingers tangled in Kai's hair, pulling him closer. By this action, their bodies ground together. The tension in Kai's groin increased and e hand to press his face into the curve of Rei's shoulder to muffle his groan. When a shudder passed through Rei in response, Kai felt it with his whole body and that caused its own pleasurable reaction.

His lips still hovering over Rei's shoulder, Kai inhaled his scent. It was poignant, reminiscent of strength and hard labour and very distinct masculinity. Distantly, he wondered if he minded Rei being a man, which made things between them that much more difficult. No, a voice told him, it didn't matter what gender the brunet was just as long as it was Rei and with him at that moment.

Kai grinned against the heated flesh of Rei's shoulder and trailed kisses up to his jaw and then back to those wanton, luscious lips. Rei responded fully and eagerly, as if kissing equated air and there wasn't enough of it. He hummed deep in his throat and then smiled against Kai's lips at his more vigorous response.

Kai's hands sought the muscular curve of Rei's waist, tugging the hem of his shirt from his pants. He ran his hands up and down Rei's spine, pleased when little goose pimples rose on the flushed skin, like waves upon the first onslaught of a storm. Rei arched his back, leaving Kai's mouth to trail hurried kisses along his jaw and nape, stopping at the point where his shoulder met his neck. Almost shyly, he licked the tender flesh there, then closed his mouth over the skin and sucked on it. One of his hands, adventurous and audacious, travelled down Kai's length to squeeze his buttocks.

"God," Kai moaned, his voice catching on the vowel and elongating it so that is sounded like one long, ardent plea.

Rei whimpered into Kai's skin when his hands left his naked back to fondle with the buttons on his front. Everything was a flurry of kisses and caresses. Hands groped hungry, mouths sought each other and their breathes seemed to synchronize to one, pleasurable inhale. There was something overwhelming building up inside of them and the sensation was both enticing and painful.

Kai's hands fumbled with the buttons of Rei's shirt and he cussed several times under his breath. It was the epitome of everything wicked and cruel that normal plastic buttons would not fit through their respective holes properly. Delirious in his haste, he swore to seek revenge on the person that invented those ridiculous things in the fist place. They should have known, those stupid bastards, that one day Hiwatari Kai would need to free the other youth from his shirt as fast as possible and that buttons would not help to speed up the process.

All the while these rampaging thoughts flitted inside Kai's head, his lips were virtually everywhere: in Rei's hair, along his throat, and meshing with his mouth. Rei's hands tangled in Kai's hair, digging into his scalp when Kai nibbled on his ear again.

Once Rei was free from his restrictive shirt, Kai pulled away. For a long moment, he looked at Rei, flushed and exposed to his scrutiny. The other youth stood tall, the gaze he returned to Kai unwavering and sure. It was as if Kai was memorizing every detail of Rei before he'd gone too far, also allowing this opening for Rei to leave if he wanted. It seemed like a thousand years later that Kai actually moved. He reached his hand across the two of them, a space that was both infinite and all too fleeting. Tentatively, timidly, he touched Rei's naked flesh with the tips of his fingers, as if afraid of using too much force, lest everything shatter.

To Kai, his own hand against Rei's darker skin seemed foreign, belonging to someone else. He trailed his fingers over the small dips in-between Rei's ribs, as if claiming the territory his. He allowed himself a furtive glance at Rei's face, then returned to observe the path of his fingers. Rei's skin was silky soft and hot under his fingertips. Almost bashfully, as if by accident, his hand grazed over one aroused, dusty-rose nipple. A low whimper escaped Rei's lips even as goose bumps rose along his abdomen; Kai's penis stiffened in agreement.

Once satisfied with his inspection, Kai pushed the rest of Rei's shirt off his shoulders and leaned in. He dropped little kisses along Rei's collarbone, letting his lips trail a heated path.

"I've wanted to touch you like this for so long," he breathed against the other's skin in-between butterfly kisses.

Rei's arms wound tightly around Kai's neck, pressing his head closer to him. "I've always wanted you to touch me. That's why I picked so many fights with you. Anything would do; as long as you were close." He replied, occasionally interrupted by muted moans and sighs.

It seemed like they had unintentionally gravitated toward the bed, steered by some visceral force. Rei's knees buckled when they met the hard edge of the bed. Boneless, almost, his rear hit the mattress. Kai followed him, kneeling on the bed in front of him. He dipped his head low, skimming his lips along Rei's throat and lower, tracing feather-like kisses across his chest. The raven-haired youth threw his head back in response, arching his back and neck to allow Kai more access.

It was like a passionate dance between equally strong opponents. One moved closer and the other withdrew only to join later in a more sensual pose.

Rei leaned his entire body backward, propping himself on his hands. That was when he encountered the clip that held his hair into a rope. Thinking that the thing was unnecessary and would get in the way later he started unclasping it.

Kai noticed his action and moved back to observe him. Clearly, it was a struggle for Rei to unfasten the thing and remain propped up at the same time. Without even thinking about it, he reached for Rei's fumbling hand, taking the clip and subsequently the entire rope of hair from him.

"Let me do it."

Though Rei never allowed anyone to touch his hair, for that was the ultimate crime, letting Kai do this was a testament of what was between them. Kai holding his hair like that seemed the most sacred thing in the world, private and intimate for just the two of them.

Kai's hands moved expertly and leisurely to untie the dark mass. And when the entire ebony mane was free, he allowed him to run his hands through it. Rei purred in response, closing his eyes to enjoy the sensation.

Kai sat back, watching as the reflection of the dim light was caught in the raven hair and made to dance. The sheer darkness of it was overwhelmingly breathtaking, swallowing his hand in its silkiness. Rei's face was an open expression, his pleasure evident by his parted lips and the loose line of his jaw. Tempted, Kai leaned in for a chaste kiss. Before Rei could respond, however, he withdrew. Rei creased his brows and opened his eyes to look inquisitively at Kai.

The man didn't seem to notice. He visually trailed his hands as they ghosted across Rei's chest, over his nipples and navel. He paused when his hands reached the sharp line of navy-coloured trousers, into which faint dark hairs disappeared. Touching the fabric over the groin confirmed that Rei, indeed, wanted this as much as he did. A lingering fear still huddled in a dark corner of Kai's psyche. He didn't know where to proceed from there, once he took that step, but something inside of him stated that he'd know and that he'd better not quit now. He also feared to look into Rei's eyes, uncertain of what he'd find there.

Almost of their own free will, his hands moved to undo to belt and then the zipper holding the trousers in place. The entire action seemed too slow, the anticipation and anxiousness building up his arousal, which was a different matter entirely. The wait was excruciating and it was a struggle to not just rip off the garment. But the wait was also revering, like the want to savour a sweet that he could have for that time only.

It seemed that almost a millennia later Rei was free from all confining clothing. Kai's breath hitched in his lungs and throat, his heart halting in his chest. He made a half-hearted motion to stand, managing only to prop himself on one leg.

He had no words to describe what he saw and the only thing he cloud do at the moment was stare; all thought fled from his head. Rei's skin was rosy from the shy flush. A fine sheen of sweat coated his entire body, edified by the faint glow from the lamp. Well-defined muscles rose and fell with each breath. His nipples were hard, begging. Hair tangled around his entire body, accentuating the natural colour of Rei's skin. Faint, dark hair trailed from just above his navel lower, where they curled at the groin. Rei's penis stood erect, quivering slightly with tension and need.

Rei would have had to be blind not to notice Kai's look. It wasn't a cold regard, or territorial; it was almost revering and tender. Rei felt very much self-conscious. He was completely exposed, mot just physically but inside out; core and dogma and soul. He was pointedly aware of his hard and aching cock. A modest blush spread along his face and ears. He tried to cover his manhood from those piercing eyes, but Kai stopped him abruptly, grasping his hand.

"God, Rei, you're beautiful." Was Kai's ardent reply.

When the other youth's mouth crashed with his own, Rei could taste the lust and the fervour on his tongue, red-hued and scathing ambrosia. He rolled his eyes behind his eyelids and pressed himself into the kiss, wanting to transfer those little heated tingles that covered his body to Kai.

The sensations flooding him, the stars that swam in his vision, the taste and the aching, building force was a combination enough to push all thought out of Rei's head. He ran his hands clumsily over Kai's sides, pulling at the shirt, desperate to get to the hot flesh that awkward cloth concealed. All he could process was that he wanted more, like the moth that had been smitten by the flame. It was threatening to suck him into oblivion, into its heat, but he didn't care because he was near delirium and he was caught beyond the point of return.

Anxiously, he tugged at the hem of Kai's t-shirt, ripping the clothing from sheer force, and at the same time trying to nearly swallow Kai into himself. Rei felt oddly cheated. He was naked and bare for Kai to touch and taste, but the same favour was not returned to him. He wanted to see Kai, to make sure that he was just as eager as he was. Rei growled deeply in his throat and then felt Kai shivered response as it reverberated down his body.

Sometime later, his senses blurred by feel and want to notice exactly when, Kai's clothes joined his on the floor. Neither could turn back now. Rei thought that Kai was the most divine person that he'd ever met. His body almost glowed from its natural pallor and from the mechanic light. He was breathtaking and ethereal, yet so startling tangible that it almost hurt.

When they met in the middle, light skin touching tanned, the small space between them was eternity and death and fear and every emotion both had experienced – all freed in that moment. Rei wanted to know that body as well as his own, wanted to study it, devote to it and rule over it as if it was his to do so with. He abandoned Kai's lips in favour of his nape, running his tongue along the jugular veins, sucking teasingly where the Kai's neck curved into his shoulder. His lips grazed reverently, teasingly over the hollow between the other's pectorals, lingering long enough to leave a sanguine mark on the pale flesh.

Kai, taking a more comfortable position being supported by the end of the bed, moaned and arched his back. Rei could feel the man's muscles tensing as one sneaky hand slipped down the curves to settle just on the inside of his thigh, not near to anything vital but close enough to that thick heat that dwelled just between Kai's legs. The raven-haired youth smiled against the other's skin, letting a low chuckle escape his lips before taking one hard, rose-coloured nipple in his mouth. He tongued the bud, biting on it lightly and then grinned when he heard Kai's hiss.

Almost forcefully, Kai forced Rei to come to his level. When he kissed him, Kai could taste himself on Rei's lips and tongue and that awakened a different kind of sensation inside of him. It went beyond the sex and the passion. It was a slow, numbing and overwhelming feeling, spreading from his heart and onward. It signified their wholeness, their true selves beyond the soldiers they played.

They'd shifted positions and Kai leaned over the other, looking down at him and watching Rei wreathe beneath him in pleasure. There was a sort of perverse smugness in that, but Kai dismissed it quickly and planted a kiss atop Rei's nose. Instinctually, he knew that neither of them could hold on much longer, and if they did, odds stated that they'd lose their sanity. And he also knew that there would be pain, even great pain and it hurt him to think that he would be the one causing it.

It was too late to turn back, but neither thought that an option and what happened next was hazy. It was intense and it was primal on a level that neither of them could understand but was so wholesomely present and rooted so far into their systems that they knew it as well as each other in that moment.

When Kai entered the other youth, there was much overwhelming sensation. It hurt a lot, too, but the pain was bittersweet and Rei welcomed it, clung to it. It was momentous and it was slowly crescendoing to something even greater but he did not know what it was. So he clutched that one grasp of ecstasy almost as hard as he held on to Kai, as if it was his last.

All through the night, they made love. It was slow and leisurely, fast-paced and wild at the same time. It was like the coupling of two halves of a one – a soul. It was beautiful and passionate; they both cried out each other's names when they came, one following the other. After, they held each other tightly while their bodies rocked with still-lingering convulsions. It was long before Kai pulled himself out of Rei's warm body, and even then they did not part. There lingered some fear that should either of them let go, that would make the entire thing less real and it was too much of a beautiful thing to ever be allowed to slip through the fingers like sand.

When they kissed again, it was not with the overwhelming power and sensation of their previous kisses. It was the joining and confirmation of seemingly a lifetime of frustration, anger and pent-up emotion. It was powerful and at the moment it seemed to define their entire beings, like neither of them had lived until that instant.

* * *

Hours later, when their previous activity was no more than a distant remnant, like glass that had been moulded into globes by the saltiness of the sea was just a relic of the original shards, they lay in each other's arms. A slow weariness engraved itself into even their souls but neither could sleep. The prospect of sleep itself was terrifying. And so they held onto each other, feeding off the dying heat and glow as if it sustained them. 

The moment was deep and sacred. Even their breaths, which no longer sounded individual but, rather, as belonging to one entity, contained some soft of divinity that only new lovers seem to possess. That moment was enchanted and maybe even magical, if either of them cared to believe in magic.

Yet there remained something. A lingering, swelling fear and pain that slowly grew. Both felt it and it was as palpable and impending as their deed had been surreal. Neither dared to voice this fear that festered inside, gnawing and feeding off the marrow that their entire beings were moulded from. It was best to ignore, to bask in the remaining afterglow, in the heat of each other's bodies and the pungent odour of sex – because acknowledging it would mean something far worse than they could face.

Rei lay in the crook of Kai's shoulder and neck, his cheek pressed against the steady beat of his heart. With one of his hands, he traced invisible patterns on the man's chest, just above where his heart drummed strongly inside. With his other hand, he grasped onto Kai's, which squeezed his in return just as tightly.

"Things weren't always like this, you know?"

Kai's voice penetrated the silence. Rei pinched his eyes tight for a second then opened them just as he exhaled. He was hoping that the comfortable quiet would last for longer.

Although Kai's statement was very ambiguous, he knew what he meant nonetheless and that forged a knot inside his bowels.

"Really?" He asked in reply, his voice tiny around the word.

It was a long, dreadful instant before Kai answered. "Yes. A long time ago – a millennia, two, three, maybe more – the world was constantly at war. One of the greatest armies in the world consisted of men that were..." his voice shook slightly on the word before he made himself utter it "... homosexuals. The lovers would be put side by side so that they would fight alongside their beloved. It was a great strategy because those men would protect their partners with almost in-human strength, until their very last breaths. And after the battle, the emperors and state governors would build monuments to honour those men."

The silence stretched, warily. Rei thought absent-mindedly that it was the largest and perhaps the most sincere speech Kai had ever given. He hated the grave air that settled between them. "You're not joking about that, are you?" He asked to fill the void and because suddenly it was very important to hear Kai's response.

"Hn."

The brunet swallowed bitterly.

A long while later, maybe even hours later, he spoke up again. "... Hey, Kai?"

He could feel the man shifting slightly and he could almost see the inquisitive quirk of his brow. When Kai grunted in answer, it seemed to resound throughout his whole body.

"... Do you suppose our world could ever be like that?" Rei's throat closed over the words and when he managed to get them out, they left a stale taste in his mouth.

For a long time he waited for Kai to say something. There was nothing. He almost allowed himself to believe that he had fallen asleep. But Kai's breathing pattern was too harsh to be that of sleep and he simply knew, instinctually, that Kai was awake and heard him and was unable to answer.

A dull ache settled inside Rei and he bit the inside of his cheek. He pressed his nose into Kai's skin, taking in his smell as if it was the traitorous nectar of the gods. Kai, his own insides twisting anxiously, wrapped his free arm around Rei's shoulder and pressed a whispering kiss into his forehead.

Just then, the digital ding sounded and the door to the chamber swished open. Both panicked. The only way to get inside the room from the outside was to have a high security code, and few people on the entire base knew it. Harsh light from the hallway poured in, sharp and jarring. Fearing the worst, Kai pressed Rei's head deeper into the crook of his shoulder, attempting to hide him in the shadows.

A second later, Boris walked in with Tale in toe, like the dutiful dog that he was. They were engaged in muted conversation, exchanging scathing glares. Adrenaline rushed through Kai and for an instant he thought Rei and he might have a chance. He tried to pull the flimsy bed sheet over Rei. But before he could finish that, Boris' sharp beady eyes turned on him.

"Where were you when I arrived?" He barked and Tala smirked at what he thought was Kai's frightened expression. "I buzzed your room nearly ten times and you didn't answer. What was so important that you could not..."

And that was when he noticed the odd-shaped lump next to Kai and his glare changed into a smirk. Kai held his breath and hoped that the other two would mistake Rei's long hair for that of a woman's.

A skulking grin curved along Tala's lips. In quick steps, he strode over to the bed and its two occupants.

"My, my, what do we have here?" He said melodiously, stretching the words to make them sound more malicious than they were. "Kai, you sly dog you, why didn't you tell anybody that you were having a lady friend over?" His grin grew predatory as he took hold of the sheet's edge. "I'm sure some of the other guys wouldn't mind sharing her with you. I know I wouldn't." He chuckled and in that gesture Kai heard an incredible thirst and hunger, one which almost made him shrink back into the bed.

With one abrupt motion, Tala pulled off the sheet. Both Kai and Rei's breaths caught in their throats, struggling before dying. The grin on the redhead's face lingered for only a couple of seconds before it was replaced with a grotesque sneer.

Everything froze.

The person both Tala and Boris saw next to Kai was muscular, lean and longhaired. And very definitely male.

'Oh, shit,' thought Kai and consequently the same sentiment ran through Rei.

Men were strictly forbidden to have any kind of homosexual activity together. The punishment for homosexual activity was...

(...continua...)

* * *

_1 Bombs that explode too close have been known to cause short-term deafening. It's like ringing in your ears and nothing else._

_Re-reading the... amorous excursions of our heros, I almost did not believe I wrote this. It may come as a surprise to some, but the full version of the lemon, which can no longer be found, was even more graphic. I apologize for any corrupted minds this story might have caused. _


End file.
